hmm..interesting posted by

How Facts Backfire – how facts sometimes don’t change our minds

Journalist

How Facts Backfire is a rather surprising report from the Boston Globe which suggests that people often won’t won’t change their minds even when proved wrong with the facts of a matter. Again, as with many strange things to do with our mind, it’s all tied in with conditionings and the deeper issues of cognitive dissonance, but even so it’s rather alarming in a lot of ways.

Howfactsbackfire

 Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

Comments are closed.

comments powered by Disqus

Side Advert

Write For Us

Personnel

Managing Editor:
Nigel Powell

Associate Editor:
Caitlyn Muncy
Associate Editor:
Dan Ferris
Ecological Editor:
Debra Atlas
Technology Editor:
Fritz Effenberger
Asian Editor:
Hu Ping
Reviews Editor:
Kevin Evans

FB Like Box