Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don't do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things
Facts don't stain the furniture
Facts go out and slam the door
Facts are written all over your face
Facts continue to change their shape

- Talking Heads, “Crosseyed and Painless”

Via Technoccult comes this fascinating study.  It’s also kind of depressing.

Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: 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….

What’s going on? How can we have things so wrong, and be so sure that we’re right? Part of the answer lies in the way our brains are wired. Generally, people tend to seek consistency. There is a substantial body of psychological research showing that people tend to interpret information with an eye toward reinforcing their preexisting views. If we believe something about the world, we are more likely to passively accept as truth any information that confirms our beliefs, and actively dismiss information that doesn’t. This is known as “motivated reasoning.” Whether or not the consistent information is accurate, we might accept it as fact, as confirmation of our beliefs. This makes us more confident in said beliefs, and even less likely to entertain facts that contradict them.

Calls to mind this quote I read earlier today:

I am always fascinated by the movements of Christian fundamentalists and still feel a touch of empathy with them. I cannot help but admire their commitment and drive… I know how much effort it requires. It can get tiring. You must constantly fight not only the skepticism of those around you, but the doubts that arise within yourself. Mainly fundamentalists evoke from me a sense of sadness. Their pathos is that they expend such energy on such a losing cause. – Harvey Cox

Also, of course, calls to mind my own biases.  This is why Tea Partiers watch the self-reinforcing Fox news, or why they seem so angry and are digging in so hard – as if their souls are under attack, not just the country, or “liberty.”  If somehow we were hit with some great new piece of knowledge – like about the origin of consciousness or UFOs – there’d be legions of people trying to prove otherwise. This might be the worst effect of all the misinformation on cable news.  All opinions are treated as equally valid.  They’re not.