… What is it that leads a substantial proportion of Americans to accept a claim with no solid evidence and plenty of available refutation? … In our study, we were interested in two specific factors that might lead people to accept claims that Barack Obama was born overseas: partisanship and […] Read more »
Why People Are Confused About What Experts Really Think
Given the complexities of the modern world, we all have to rely on expert opinion. … And to find out what the experts think, we typically rely on the news media. This creates a challenge for journalists: There are many issues on which a large majority of experts agree but […] Read more »
Debunking Donald Trump won’t work if you repeat what he got wrong
The same infographic kept appearing in my Twitter feed again and again around Thanksgiving. The graphic, originally shared by Donald Trump, showed a series of statistics about race and gun deaths in 2015, alongside an image of a dark-skinned man with a handgun. Every single one of the statistics in […] Read more »
Purity, Disgust and Donald Trump
… By setting a populist agenda that appeals to millions of Republicans and to substantial numbers of Democrats and independents as well, Trump has opened the door to a reshaping of the traditional two-party coalitions. As everything shifts and we question previously sacrosanct boundaries, Trump and his supporters embody conflicts […] Read more »
Is Hillary Clinton ‘likable enough’? Science has an answer.
… Across a wide spectrum of traditionally male-dominated professions, women are becoming leaders with increasing frequency. But they haven’t yet been able to shed the social penalties that accompany climbing up the ladder. The same behaviors that are required of women to achieve professional success are also seen by others […] Read more »
Why Fact-Checking Donald Trump Backfires
… A few weeks ago, Republican pollster Frank Luntz spent hours showing a focus group of Donald Trump supporters television ads that criticized their candidate. The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel described one ad as “not so subtly comparing the Republican front-runner to Adolf Hitler.” Those attacks on Trump made him […] Read more »