Is It Possible to Override Partisanship?

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Partisanship is a powerful drug. It really does, at least in our system. At the moment, if we have elites who are unwilling to challenge their own side, on either side, then we're locked in for the time being. Red Law School said partisan elites must step up if there's any hope to squash misinformation. But with friends and family and people you meet online, his advice is a lot more optimistic.

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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