A good topic at DUmmyland, since they are immune to the truth.
ej510 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Jun-29-11 05:57 PM
Original message
Why Do People Believe Stupid Stuff, Even When They're Confronted With the Truth?
The "backfire effect" helps explain how strange, ancient and kooky beliefs resist science, reason and reportage.
The Truth: When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.
>snip
In 2006, Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler at The University of Michigan and Georgia State University created fake newspaper articles about polarizing political issues. The articles were written in a way which would confirm a widespread misconception about certain ideas in American politics. As soon as a person read a fake article, researchers then handed over a true article which corrected the first. For instance, one article suggested the United States found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The next said the U.S. never found them, which was the truth. Those opposed to the war or who had strong liberal leanings tended to disagree with the original article and accept the second. Those who supported the war and leaned more toward the conservative camp tended to agree with the first article and strongly disagree with the second. These reactions shouldn’t surprise you. What should give you pause though is how conservatives felt about the correction. After reading that there were no WMDs, they reported being even more certain than before there actually were WMDs and their original beliefs were correct.
They repeated the experiment with other wedge issues like stem cell research and tax reform, and once again, they found corrections tended to increase the strength of the participants’ misconceptions if those corrections contradicted their ideologies. People on opposing sides of the political spectrum read the same articles and then the same corrections, and when new evidence was interpreted as threatening to their beliefs, they doubled down. The corrections backfired.
Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm. You do it instinctively and unconsciously when confronted with attitude-inconsistent information.
More at the link: http://www.alternet.org/media/151426/why_do_people_beli... /
Not surprising at all.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1386951Notice in the experiment that they said people from both sides did the same thing.
HopeHoops Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Jun-29-11 05:59 PM
Response to Original message
1. If they hear it on FOX or from Limpballs, they believe ANYTHING.
Well, the dumb****s do.
Yeah the troof only comes from Keef, Maddow, and John Stewart.
Initech Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Jun-29-11 06:36 PM
Response to Reply #1
16. Hey it's like Stalin said - you repeat the lie long enough and it becomes fact.
Of course the Limbaughs, Coulters, and Hannitys of this country latched onto that concept and took it to whole new levels.
Stalin predicted DU. They repeated the Bush AWOL story until it was seared in their tiny minds. Even when confronted that the memo was a forgery, they held on to it and screeched, "Fake, but accurate".
lpbk2713 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Jun-29-11 06:01 PM
Response to Original message
2. Sounds like a case study of OxyRush listeners.
The Shittoheads will believe every filthy lie and innuendo that comes out of his putrid sewer hole.
This coming from the people who believed that Wiener got hacked.
ej510 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Jun-29-11 06:03 PM
Response to Original message
3. I like the part which states if you believe it in your heart nothing anyone says
will matter, as a matter of fact you will believe harder.
Great description of liberalism.
Jkid (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Jun-29-11 06:14 PM
Response to Original message
4. Because if they learn that their belief is false...
their worldview is changed. They want to protect their worldview, even if the truth is shown right in front of their face.
Happens at DU everyday.
Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Wed Jun-29-11 06:21 PM
Response to Original message
10. What's interesting is that you won't find too many cases (as in none) of liberals believing a lie.
Why is that? I guess because we have to accept the truth and move on when our believes are challenged with contradictory facts. I really can't remember one example of liberals sticking with a position that is contradicted by facts. We may take a position before all the facts are in, but once the facts are in, we don't refuse to believe the truth even if it doesn't comport with our basic belief system - the Weiner story might be an example.
Liberalism is a lie.
