cognitive dissident

I mentioned the "backfire effect" (the tendency to ignore evidence that contradicts one's preconceptions) before, and found out yesterday that the study has been published as "When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions"; h/t: Mike Finnigan at Crooks and Liars, Paddy at Political Carnival, and Joe Keohane at Boston Globe). The Globe article summarizes the study very well, pointing out that "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 found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger. [...]

In reality, we often base our opinions on our beliefs, which can have an uneasy relationship with facts. And rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions. Worst of all, they can lead us to uncritically accept bad information just because it reinforces our beliefs. This reinforcement makes us more confident we're right, and even less likely to listen to any new information. And then we vote.

That's the Tea Party to a T--which is not surprising, because the backfire effect is more pronounced among conservatives: "The participants who self-identified as conservative believed the misinformation...even more strongly after being given the correction." Our media environment exacerbates the problem:

This effect is only heightened by the information glut, which offers -- alongside an unprecedented amount of good information -- endless rumors, misinformation, and questionable variations on the truth. In other words, it's never been easier for people to be wrong, and at the same time feel more certain that they're right.

In other words, the correction backfired--conservatives who received a correction telling them that Iraq did not have WMD were more likely to believe that Iraq had WMD than those in the control condition. [...] Currently, all of our backfire results come from conservatives--a finding that may provide support for the hypothesis that conservatives are especially dogmatic...

more:
Ron Chusid at Liberal Values

David Dayen at FDL

karoli at Crooks and Liars

digby at Hullabaloo