There's evidence that the polarization surrounding climate change increases with people's level of education. Doctors, your family's pediatrician is likely to be a more trusted source of information about vaccines than a public health agency. Stephen Lowendowski: We're all human beings who resist being told that we're wrong. It's very difficult to be open-minded when our identities are beliefs are at stake.
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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