The Backfire Effect

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People continue to rely on information even after we tell them it's false. People have only held these beliefs in the study concerning that story for half an hour. It's just a story and they know it. Yet here they are defending this erroneous belief, citing misinformation they know has just been debunked. This reveals so much about the underlying mechanisms behind motivated reasoning,. confirmation bias, disconfirmation bias, attitude, bolstering models of reality - all those things that blend into the backfire effect.

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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