Exposed to Facts, the Misinformed Believe Lies More Strongly

[HooptieWagon]

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/07/12/exposed-to-facts-the-misinformed-believe-lies-more-strongly/


By: David Dayen Monday July 12, 2010 6:50 am


A truly disturbing study from researchers at my alma mater, the University of Michigan, reveals that political partisans reacted to facts that contradicted their worldview by clinging closer to their worldview.

>>>> 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.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

“The general idea is that it’s absolutely threatening to admit you’re wrong,” says political scientist Brendan Nyhan, the lead researcher on the Michigan study. The phenomenon — known as “backfire” — is “a natural defense mechanism to avoid that cognitive dissonance.”<<<<<<

Hoop's note: I saw this at FDL, hadn't seen it at DU so I thought I'd call attention to it. Apologies if it's already been posted.

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. It gets posted frequently

Mainly because we see proof so often.

[flvegan]

2. I've seen that proven right here on DU.

It's almost funny.

[howaboutme]

3. Blind partisanship

Most in Congress are probably the worst offenders. It would be interesting to see if our Congress (which has extremely low approval) would run more effectively for the country if there were no Party leadership positions and no caucusing and the D/R identifiers were removed from names and seating positions.

Most important all campaign financing would be provided through the public and not through special interests and corporations.

[kentuck]

4. By your words, you shall be known ?

Your enemies may not know when you are lying. Your friends may not know when you are lying. But your heart knows when you are lying.

We can deny the facts and the truth if it contradicts what the present political leadership is telling us. We trust partisan political leaders over our own hearts.

[izquierdista]

5. People just ain't scientific

Science, the use of facts, deductions, and logic to arrive at beliefs (which one hopes are true beliefs), hasn't been around all that long, and the majority of people pay it no attention. Other than knowing that science is how petroleum is found and refined and how medicines are discovered, they don't think it has a place in their daily life. No, they believe what authority figures tell them to believe: that the Earth is 6000 years old, homosexuality is a choice, and the economy will be better if taxes are cut.

Most people are not even prepared to start learning some science. They haven't even got a very good grasp on geography, spelling, and ciphering, which allow scientists to make statements about where, what, and how much. I don't believe much in the "cognitive dissonance" argument expounded in the OP, because I don't see much cognition going on. These misinformed people aren't backfiring so much as not firing at all. When an occasional factoid falls into their limited purview and it reinforces other factoids, THEN it is remembered and added onto the edifice of mistaken facts they live their lives by. No dissonance, because any dissonant facts are ignored as too much information.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. We see this phenomena here all the time

:-)

Hell, we all have been guilty of it I suspect.

:hi:

[azul]

7. nine eleven two ohoh one?

Just the facts, Mam.