The Backfire Effect in Political Misinformation

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In 2006, political scientists created fake newspaper articles about polarizing issues. People who were supportive of the Iraq war didn't just discount it; they doubled down on their original beliefs. Nihan and Raifler coined a new term in psychology, the backfire effect. When you're confronted with something that you don't want to be true, you engage in effortful processing of information to argue against it.

If you try to correct someone who you know is wrong, you run the risk of alarming their brains to a sort-of existential, epistemic threat, and if you do that, when that person expends effortful thinking to escape, that effort can strengthen their beliefs instead of weakening them.

In this episode you'll hear from three experts who explain why trying to correct misinformation can end up causing more harm than good.

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