Surprising threat to democracy: our brains
Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: 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 ... Full Story »
Posted by Sirajul Islam - via Jay Rosen, Boston Globe, Memeorandum, Donica Mensing (t), Jeremy Caplan (t), Jon Mitchell (t), Kaizar Campwala (t), Tshiung Han See (t), Sirajul Islam (t), Jeppe Kabell (t), Rachel Fus (t), Allan Foster (f), Fabrice Florin (f), Subramanya Sastry (f), JR Russ (f), Alex Williams (f), Tshiung Han See (f), Jon Mitchell (f), mark breslauer (f)
"You are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts." - attributed to Daniel Patrick Moynihan This has always been a favorite quote. I've generally pulled it out when confronted with those, clearly described in this article, who hold tight to their political beliefs even when the facts on which their beliefs are based have been proven completely false. While this reaction makes no sense to me, this article at least provides evidence that it is in fact a widespread phenomena and not something limited only to my personal experience. Perhaps this will allow me to have a bit more compassion for those who insist that black is indeed white when it is obvious they know the facts have proven them wrong.