"In Politics, Sometimes The Facts Don't Matter"

Heard this on the radio the other day....very interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128490874

New research suggests that misinformed people rarely change their minds when presented with the facts -- and often become even more attached to their beliefs. The finding raises questions about a key principle of a strong democracy: that a well-informed electorate is best.

Click to expand...

Yeah I agree 100%.. people believe what they want to believe, regardless of facts..there's a few people like that on RIU to be honest

Yea, that's why I posted it here. This place is the mecca of paranoid political conspiracy for some reason. I wonder why....

The meme comes to mind

It has nothing to do with people, but with the way our society indoctrinates people and educates them. Serious minded critical thinkers the US population is not.
Besides the research only suggests, which means it only has a slight statistical advantage, one cannot prove the assumption. Kind of like how studies suggest that marijuana fries your brain. Critical thinking.

I don 't know how many of you have a good grasp of Statisitics, but you can interpret most data any way you want as long as you use the right formula for the job. Like the saying goes, "There are lies, damnable lies and then there are statisitics".

abe23 said:

Heard this on the radio the other day....very interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128490874

Click to expand...

it is often easier on the ego to hold onto a false belief than fall into the cognitive dissonance trap. most people like to think of themselves as reasonably intelligent people. so when confronted with evidence that they hold a false belief, they have to deal with two thoughts...

1) i am a reasonably intelligent person
2) i hold false beliefs based on bad information

rather than accept that both 1 and 2 are true, it is often easier to rationalize some way in which the false belief is right. reminds me of a lot of people in the prop 19 debate who seem to base their vote on things that the bill has no power to effect, like you won't be able to smoke in your house if you have kids or that you will go to jail if you're carrying 29 grams instead of 28.5.

i posted this the other day...i see a lot of this 'decide first and justify later' every day, not just here (i am sometimes guilty myself). a wise person does the opposite, and justifies BEFORE deciding.

WHY MASS DELUSIONS PERSIST: http://higher-thought.net/2010/02/cognitive-dissonance-why-mass-delusions-persist/

Cognitive Dissonance, exactly the process by which people actually believe that banks loan money they have as deposits and not just create the majority of it out of thin air.

UncleBuck said:

it is often easier on the ego to hold onto a false belief than fall into the cognitive dissonance trap. most people like to think of themselves as reasonably intelligent people. so when confronted with evidence that they hold a false belief, they have to deal with two thoughts...

1) i am a reasonably intelligent person
2) i hold false beliefs based on bad information

rather than accept that both 1 and 2 are true, it is often easier to rationalize some way in which the false belief is right. reminds me of a lot of people in the prop 19 debate who seem to base their vote on things that the bill has no power to effect, like you won't be able to smoke in your house if you have kids or that you will go to jail if you're carrying 29 grams instead of 28.5.

i posted this the other day...i see a lot of this 'decide first and justify later' every day, not just here (i am sometimes guilty myself). a wise person does the opposite, and justifies BEFORE deciding.

WHY MASS DELUSIONS PERSIST: http://higher-thought.net/2010/02/cognitive-dissonance-why-mass-delusions-persist/

Click to expand...

I think this one word sums it all up.

theres a video around here somewhere thats called three magic words and its all about how much better things would be if people could just admit that they were wrong.