People tend to process information with a bias towards their existing views or predispositions. We found this in our study of political misinformation that corrective information sometimes made people double down on the belief we were trying to correct. Rifler and Ihan both said they believe that if you try to correct someone who you know is wrong, you run the risk of alarming their brains.
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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