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If you want to know why the most ridiculous arguments keep reappearing after being soundly rebutted by facts, here is a little clue into the human mind discovered by University of Michigan professor, facts don't matter.
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.
I saw that article a while back. Very, very interesting. "Stubborn as a Mule" does not quite cover those folks (actually, my apology to the Mules, who will, occasionally, change their mind and move on).
Nyhan worked on one study in which he showed that people who were given a self-affirmation exercise were more likely to consider new information than people who had not. In other words, if you feel good about yourself, you’ll listen — and if you feel insecure or threatened, you won’t. This would also explain why demagogues benefit from keeping people agitated. The more threatened people feel, the less likely they are to listen to dissenting opinions, and the more easily controlled they are.
The study makes it rather obvious that unless you are participating in a discussion forum out of pure boredom, earnest attempts to have a meaningful discussion is an absolute waste of time.
The study makes it rather obvious that unless you are participating in a discussion forum out of pure boredom, earnest attempts to have a meaningful discussion is an absolute waste of time.
Or you could say it highlights the need to challenge rampant falsehoods and misinformation.
It's why most of the posts try to embarrass the other side (to elicit an emotional response) rather than present a dispassionate argument.
Being dispassionately objective doesn't work either.
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