Do you think of yourself as open-minded? For a 2017 study, scientists asked 2,400 well-educated adults to consider arguments on politically controversial issues — same-sex marriage, gun control, marijuana legalization — that ran counter to their beliefs. Both liberals and conservatives, they found, were similarly adamant about avoiding contrary opinions. […] Read more »
The psychological phenomenon that blinds Trump supporters to his racism
… Cognitive dissonance, first described by the psychologist Leon Festinger in the late 1950s, occurs when conflict emerges between what people want to believe and the reality that threatens those beliefs. The human mind does not like such inconsistencies: They set off alarms that spur the mind to alter some […] Read more »
In-Group Love Versus Out-Group Hate: Which Is More Important to Partisans and When?
Affective polarization is on the rise, driving historically high levels of negative feelings towards out party members. When political intergroup conflict occurs, what is the primary reaction that people have: do they run to defend their in-group, or do they lash out against the out-group? Are there conditions under which […] Read more »
When Facts Change Opinions: A Discussion With Brendan Nyhan
When consuming the news, people bring their biases with them. However, University of Michigan professor Brendan Nyhan and other scholars have found that facts can — and do — change people’s minds when presented under certain conditions. We discuss his research on how to create a more widely-shared understanding of […] Read more »
‘Screen Time’ Is Over
… Consider what a person can do in just the time it takes to wait for a bus: text, watch a comedy skit, play a video game, buy concert tickets, take five selfies, each with a different set of cartoon ears. Learning how that behavior shapes an individual’s life experience […] Read more »
In the war against misinformation, fact-checking works. Big Tech needs to do more of it
Amid a continued public outcry over the influence of fake news and misinformation, tech companies are scrambling to generate effective solutions. … Our new research shows that fact-checking prevents misinformation from shaping our thoughts — even our automatic and uncontrollable perceptions. When fact-checking calls out what isn’t credible, much of […] Read more »