How Facts Backfire

Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains.

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.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/

(Joe Keohane, How Facts Backfire, Boston Globe, July 2010)

Russia in colour, a century ago

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/russia_in_color_a_century_ago.html

RSA: 21st Century Enlightenment

Matthew Taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment, how the idea might help us meet the challenges we face today, and the role that can be played by organisations such as the RSA.

Watch more animations, lectures and more at the RSA website

aldaily.com

The Struggle for the (Possible) Soul of David Eagleman

"I can tell you from my internal experience, and from my scientific training. Internally, I have felt as I’ve gotten older that I am not the same as my body, despite all of the neuroscience. How do I put this? What’s clear is that I depend entirely on the integrity of my body. As things in my brain change—if I were to develop a tumor, for example—that could completely change who I am, how I think. So I’m somehow yoked to my brain in a very strong way, and the question for all of us is, are we yoked to it 100 percent or is there some other little bit going on? From the inside, I have an intuition that I’m not just equivalent to my body. That said, intuitions always prove to be a very poor judge of reality. So, if you ask me, ‘do I have a soul?’ I would say ‘you know, I kind of feel like there’s something about me that’s a little separate from the biology.’ But I have no evidence for that.” http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/witness/the-struggle-for-the-possible-soul-of-david-eagleman/

Jonathan Haidt: The New Science of Morality

An absolute corker from Jonathan Haidt, brought to you by edge.org.

Haidt connects bottom-up and top down approaches in psychology and neurology, evolutionary theory and moral philosophy to deliver this deliciously appealing Humean perspective on the age old conundrum of morality. Persuasive, illuminating, clear and insightful - you won't forget this one.

▼ Watch the talk

▼ Watch the panel discussion

Read the transcript.
Download this talk as an mp3.

When the scientific evidence is unwelcome, people try to reason it away

Everybody should read this.