The Worldview Backfire Effect

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Stephen Lewandowski: Research shows that belief often follows behavior. He says instead of worrying about people's worldview, focus on their behaviors. For example, make it harder to smoke in public or wash your hands a certain number of times each day by giving employees a special dye for handwashing.Lewandowski: Try to seek self affirmation and don't mention the myth you're trying to bust. Only mention the truth that debunks it.

If dumping evidence into people’s laps often just makes their beliefs stronger, would we just be better off trying some other tactic, or does the truth ever win?

Do people ever come around, or are we causing more harm than good by leaning on facts instead of some other technique?

In this episode we learn from two scientists how to combat the backfire effect. One used an ingenious research method to identify the breaking point at which people stop resisting and begin accepting the fact that they might be wrong. The other literally wrote the instruction manual for avoiding the backfire effect and debunking myths using the latest psychological research into effective persuasive techniques.

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