Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds

[Zenith]

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/0...-our-minds

[abaris]

I'm sorry, but I think that sticking to falsehoods is everyone's own fault. Information is readiliy available in this day and age.

I've grown up way before the internet and was fed the bullshit about American Indians being bad and the Cavellery saving the day. I also was fed the bullshit of the galant freedom fighters in Afghanistan against the re scare. Maybe the realization of that being propaganda at it's purest made me check every bit of information that's presented to me.

I feel cheated and everyone should feel the same. If any information seems important, I don't take it at face value, since the media is still at it. For example, I hate what Putin represents, but I don't buy the narrative of the Russians being all bad and their counterparts all good. It's a two way game and there's always cause and effect.

[vorlon13]

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/0...-our-minds

And what do you think about this ?

[brewer]

What facts?

[Aroura]

It's an interesting, though not new, idea in psychology. It amounts to (as the article says):
“Once formed,” the researchers observed dryly, “impressions are remarkably perseverant.”

Which is very true. People have a hard time unlearning bad facts. And it turns out things learned through inductive learning and reasoning is much, much harder to unlearn than things presented straight to a person.

So, if a person thinks they figured something out on your own, even when presented with a pile of hard facts, logic and reason s to why they are wrong, they will cling to the "fact" that they incorrectly induced on their own.

Not everyone does this all of the time, but it is a difficult barrier to surpass. Some of us learn to question the things we believe, but most people are never actually able to do that in any objective way. Hence rational, intelligent people clinging to religion and political beliefs that make absolutely no sense.

[Zenith]

I'm sorry, but I think that sticking to falsehoods is everyone's own fault. Information is readiliy available in this day and age.

Throwing faults, even if correct, doesn't help. Societies don't get better by this.
You may have learned not to take anything important presented by the media at face value, but many have not. Worse, perhaps, some might have learned not to believe anything official media says, so they turned to social media.

And what do you think about this ?

I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with people. And I think that simple answers like "stupid" or "their fault" are insufficient. Yes, I know, there are also a lot of people with low-IQ out there, who can't do better, but I'm not talking about them here.

I have noticed that people have the tendency to become tribal - like, defending blindly "our side" and fighting blindly against "their side".
I find it astounding how people can be reasonable in most cases, but in others their reasoning is completely shut off (such as, when you see a very good medic, which should mean he's intelligent, but he's also very religious).
I find it astounding how people can be tribal as news channels go - like, if most TV channels say that X happened, but a channel they trust say that "X did not happen", many people who trust the latter simply call the latter "The only news channel who actually says the truth!"

I believe that many people are emotionally-attached to what they want to believe. And that reminds me of the christian I had been, who kept clinging to his imaginary God. To see what you crave, even when it is not there, but to turn blind to what you can't accept.

Other things that continue to puzzle me:

• I know a guy, a team leader of software engineers, working in a corporation, here in my city. Now I don't appreciate him as a very skilled team leader, or as a very skilled software engineer, but you've got to admit, there's a long way from a burger seller and a guy who can build software, represent a team and hold meetings with managers from different countries. But this guy is completely brainwashed by two news channels and he truly believes in those fucked-up conspiracy theories. I never had the patience nor the stomach to talk to him about politics and news, but whoever tried reached nowhere with him. And I wonder, now that I haven't seen him for a good couple of months, how does he make of that conspiracy theory that "multinational companies sent their employees to protest" when he himself saw in his company nothing like that? Yet, I know, somehow it got around him. What I heard from a common acquaintance, lately he was disturbed by the fact that the protests (here in Romania) convinced the government to annule the law (which would've allowed politicians to steal). Himself wouldn't have profited from that law, that's certain. But somehow, he was still convinced that law was good for the country and that it had nothing to do with corruption or with officials stealing money.
  
  
• I know another guy, software engineer still, who believes all kinds of conspiracy theories. I haven't talked to him for a good while, but he was convinced that Trump is like the "savior" of this world who fights against the forces of evil. He didn't have anything to win or loose, whichever was going to become President. And from what I know, he's neither a racist nor a xenophobe. Like any guy who believes in conspiracy theories, this is fucked up.
  

So I think I am shocked that even though you see someone with higher IQ (far more skilled and competent than a guy who sells burgers), in certain aspects he can shut off reasoning just as religious people shut off their reasoning when it comes to their religion.

[Minimalist]

“Once formed,” the researchers observed dryly, “impressions are remarkably perseverant.”

Something religion has always relied upon.

[brewer]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own" comes to mind.

[Minimalist]

Spesking of which....

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/trump-as...ravel-ban/

Trump asked for terror intelligence report but rejects results because they undermine travel ban

Government by fantasy.

[Kernel Sohcahtoa]

It's an interesting, though not new, idea in psychology.  It amounts to (as the article says):
“Once formed,” the researchers observed dryly, “impressions are remarkably perseverant.”

Which is very true.  People have a hard time unlearning bad facts.  And it turns out things learned through inductive learning and reasoning is much, much harder to unlearn than things presented straight to a person.

So, if a person thinks they figured something out on your own, even when presented with a pile of hard facts, logic and reason s to why they are wrong, they will cling to the "fact" that they incorrectly induced on their own.

This is cool.  On a much smaller scale, I find myself doing the same thing when I'm struggling with a math problem: I cling to an erroneous understanding of a concept that isn't producing results, and it often takes a good amount of effort for me to refocus my thoughts and look at the problem in a new way.  As a result, this often (but not always as some math proofs/concepts are mind boggling IMO) leads to me gaining a more accurate understanding of what's going on and pinpointing where I went wrong, which IMO, feels very satisfying and rewarding.