Who Is Surprised? Not Me.

[dje2004]

How Facts Backfire

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

Comments

[dje2004]

For the true believers, it's worse than refusing to think: it's actively warping your thinking so that night becomes day. Evidence that supports your belief, no matter how small or tenuous, becomes proof that you're right. Evidence that contradicts it is ignored, distorted, or rationalized away. Experts who contradict you are part of the conspiracy against your cause, and non-experts who disagree with you are sheep and dupes. You see this sort of thing with truthers, birthers, anti-vaxxers, pseudo-scientists, pseudo-historians, holocaust deniers, AGW deniers, and creationists.

I know that this sort of thing is something you have a lot of experience dealing with.

[ceebeegee]

What's AGW?

Depressing study, BTW. Although I give a small--a very small--amount of slack to anti-vaxxers. As infurating as their stupid "herd mentality" nonsense is, the whole thing was started by parents who are freaked out because of something inexplicable that happened to their kids

[dje2004]

Anthropogenic Global Warming

I don't give any slack to anti-vaxxers. By not vaccinating their kids, they're lowering the herd immunity. As a result measles, which had all but disappeared in the US, is making a comeback (it's already made a comeback in the UK, where the anti-vax movement has been around longer). This particularly affects kids who can't receive vaccines because of medical conditions and who thus particularly rely on herd immunity to stay safe.

[dje2004]

That doesn't surprise me either, though if you go far enough to the left you find the same sort of thinking.