Yamil Velez, a political scientist at Columbia University, dives into the intricate world of persuasion and fact-checking. He discusses when fact-checks succeed or backfire, revealing that rudeness is a major turn-off for changing minds. Velez shares insights from experiments with chatbots, showing that people can shift their opinions on hot topics but often cling to their beliefs when faced with incivility. The conversation navigates the ethics of research and the complexities of misinformation, blending humor with serious social issues.
Fact-checking can sometimes strengthen erroneous beliefs due to motivated reasoning, requiring careful presentation to foster genuine belief change.
Rude interactions, even in digital formats like chatbots, significantly hinder the potential for changing someone's mind on deeply held convictions.
Deep dives
The Impact of Fact-Checking
Fact-checking during election seasons faces the challenge of effectively changing people's beliefs. Research indicates that in some cases, people with strong preexisting beliefs may entrench themselves further when confronted with corrections, rather than changing their views. The 2010 study by Brendan Nihan and Jason Reifler highlighted this issue, showing that factual corrections often backfire, increasing individuals' certainty in their incorrect beliefs, especially on contentious topics like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This phenomenon raised concerns among media organizations about the effectiveness of fact-checking efforts, leading to debates on whether some topics should be strategically avoided to prevent worsening misinformation.
Evolving Understanding of Belief Change
Recent studies challenge the notion that factual corrections universally backfire, indicating that people are open to persuasion even on strongly held beliefs. The work of Thomas Wood and Ethan Porter involved assessing responses to multiple fact-checks and found minimal evidence of backfire effects. Instead, they demonstrated that, on average, individuals often adjust their beliefs in accordance with corrective information. This indicates a more nuanced view where context, issue relevance, and presentation play key roles in determining whether fact-checks successfully influence beliefs.
The Role of Motivated Reasoning
Motivated reasoning significantly influences how individuals process information and interact with corrective facts. People often interpret new information through the lens of their existing beliefs, leading to selective acceptance or rejection based on personal biases. This notion has evolved in the political science discipline, emphasizing that one's ideological stance can skew their understanding of evidence, rather than a straightforward acceptance of facts. Consequently, even when presented with compelling corrective information, individuals may resist changing their views if it threatens their identity or aligns poorly with their prior convictions.
Effectiveness and Durability of Fact-Checks
The effectiveness of fact-checking is complicated by factors beyond immediate belief adjustment, such as social dynamics and deeper psychological motivations. While studies suggest that fact-checks can improve belief accuracy, lasting changes in behaviors or attitudes are less common. This phenomenon occurs because beliefs may stem from social communities or identity-based considerations rather than simply informational deficits. Therefore, even with consistent fact-checking efforts, misinformation can persist, particularly if it resonates with an individual's social group or established worldview.
When do fact-checks work? And when do they backfire and cause someone to dig in? Yamil Velez, a political scientist at Columbia University, set up an experiment using chatbots and found that people can change their mind, even on deeply held beliefs. Except under one condition: when the chatbot is rude.
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