Is There a Breaking Point?

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In the real world, people choose how much information they put into their heads. As they start to realize that one source is more critical of their beliefs than another, they will gravitate away from it and toward new sources that tend to confirm their beliefs instead. Red Law says we'll protect people from reaching their personal, effective tipping point. The problem isn't fake news or alternative facts or propaganda or bias. It's control and that's new.

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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