Changing People's Minds

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The influence of misinformation is pervasive. When we correct a story that people say, oh, yeah, I know you corrected this. But then we ask them use of the information, they're referring to stuff that they know is false. They opt for the wrong explanation over an incomplete model in the absence of a better one. The threat of decoherence will not allow them to accept that wrongness. People easily, freely and without resistance, replace it with the better explanation instead.

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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