(June 24, 2013 at 2:48 pm)Minimalist Wrote: So, in a nutshell, stupid people have a pre-existing bias for remaining stupid.
In a manner of speaking. It's as if our minds automatically filter new information through a lens of our biases; we're more likely to trust information that confirms what we believe, and less likely to trust information that challenges what we believe. We seek confirmation-- most people will read/view/listen to information that conforms to their beliefs.
One statement that is pretty common from people on opposite sides of contentious topics (religion and politics are good examples) will express surprise or consternation that those on the other side can believe the things that they believe. But we have a tendency to bury ourselves in our biases, and our points of view therefore seem painfully obvious to us.
We're built to hang on to our biased beliefs. Which means that if those beliefs are wrong, we'll work really hard to hang on to them anyway.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
