2008-09-15 The Backfire Effect

2008-09-15 Kevin Drum MotherJones \human nature\US Republican Party\US conservatism http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2008/09/backfire-effect The Backfire Effect The Backfire Effect  Nyhan and Reifler found this "backfire" effect only among conservatives. Refutations had little effect on liberals, but it didn't cause them to actively believe the misleading information even more strongly.

Why? Reifler suggests it's because conservatives are more rigid than liberals. Maybe so. If I had to guess, though, I'd say it's because right-wing talkers have spent so many years deriding "so-called experts" that they now have negative credibility with many conservatives. The very fact that an expert says a conservative claim is wrong is taken as a good reason to believe the claim. This could probably be tested by doing a study of factual information outside the realm of politics and seeing if conservatives react the same way. If they do, maybe that's support for the generic rigidity theory. If not, it's support for the theory that conservatives simply distrust political elites. This article reports on a pre-publication version of 2009-04-22 The persistence of political misperceptions.

&ldquo;Nyhan and Reifler found this "backfire" effect only among conservatives. Refutations had little effect on liberals, but it didn't cause them to actively believe the misleading information even more strongly.&rdquo;   