Alan Henderson--- I thought cognitive dissonance/confirmation bias were bad enough, but since learning about the Backfire Effect Im no longer confident that we can fix the terminal illnesses were suffering. Philippe: Rational discourse with conservatives is worse than futile: it is actively *counterproductive*. “A new study out of Yale University confirms what argumentative liberals have long-known: Offering reality-based rebuttals to conservative lies only makes conservatives cling to those lies even harder. In essence, schooling conservatives makes them more stupid. The refutation, in other words, made the misinformation worse. A similar backfire effect also influenced conservatives told about Bush administration assertions that tax cuts increase federal revenue. One group was offered a refutation by prominent economists that included current and former Bush administration officials. About 35 percent of conservatives told about the Bush claim believed it; 67 percent of those provided with both assertion and refutation believed that tax cuts increase revenue.”
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 19:43:45 +0000
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