We're traveled all across the country for political reasons over the years. Sometimes to cover a story for a newspaper, other times to campaign for our preferred candidate. And not to get all "there are only two kinds of people in this world, son" on you, but... there are two kinds of political people in this country: the liberal, who thinks just because he's right and has the facts on his side, he can change the oppositions mind, and the conservative, who thinks if he just sticks to his talking points and ignores what the other person is actually saying, he will eventually get the other person to give up.
They're both wrong, although a new study shows that presenting facts and truth to conservatives makes them more likely to reaffirm their original position...
From the Washington Post:
One group was given a refutation -- the comprehensive 2004 Duelfer
report that concluded that Iraq did not have weapons of mass
destruction before the United States invaded in 2003. Thirty-four
percent of conservatives told only about the Bush administration's
claims thought Iraq had hidden or destroyed its weapons before the U.S.
invasion, but 64 percent of conservatives who heard both claim and
refutation thought that Iraq really did have the weapons. The
refutation, in other words, made the misinformation worse.
[The study suggests] that
Republicans might be especially prone to the backfire effect because
conservatives may have more rigid views than liberals: Upon hearing a
refutation, conservatives might "argue back" against the refutation in
their minds, thereby strengthening their belief in the misinformation. [They] did not see the same "backfire effect" when liberals
were given misinformation and a refutation about the Bush
administration's stance on stem cell research.
Well, either that or liberals are just whimps who cower before conservative's loud awesomeness!
Via HuffPo.
Related:
