Cultural Cognition

[joreth]

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=110837

A study was released on January 13 of this year with some really interesting results on "cultural cognition".  They wanted to find out who thought the HPV vaccine was risky and who didn't, and why.  The "who" came as no surprise to me, but the "why" was interesting.

Interviews of more than 1,500 U.S

Comments

[emanix]

Surprised this hasn't received any other comments. Then again it's scary stuff... the temptation to pop my fingers in my ears and pretend that people aren't so stupid is strong!

[zandperl]

I just heard a talk Tuesday night from a psychologist about the role of perceived plausibility in accepting new ideas or changing old opinions. (The speaker studied learning of global warming/climate change, but it's applicable to other issues too.) His framework was that before people can even critically evaluate evidence, they make a decision about whether the evidence is plausible (potentially believable), and then only if the new evidence is more plausible than what they already believe do they actually go and look at the new evidence. Two things which affect the plausibility of the new evidence are the complexity of the evidence (so if it's really complex they're less likely to believe it), and how believable they feel the person presenting the evidence is. These are exactly what you commented on above: that more evidence tends to end up making people trust the HPV vaccine less (because more complex evidence makes people feel it's less plausible), and that people believe it more if someone "like themselves" take a particular

[joreth]

That's interesting, thanks for letting me know! This is why the political climate in the US is so frustrating - everyone wants a "president I can drink a beer with" and soundbite answers to complex issues.