why facts don't change our minds sparknotes

Its one thing for me to flush a toilet without knowing how it operates, and another for me to favor (or oppose) an immigration ban without knowing what Im talking about. I thought about changing the title, but nobody is allowed to copyright titles and enough time has passed now, so Im sticking with it. Providing people with accurate information doesnt seem to help; they simply discount it. But what if the human capacity for reason didnt evolve to help us solve problems; what if its purpose is to help people survive being near each other? This is the tendency that we have to . It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right.10. Reason developed not to enable us to solve abstract, logical problems or even to help us draw conclusions from unfamiliar data; rather, it developed to resolve the problems posed by living in collaborative groups. A recent experiment performed by Mercier and some European colleagues neatly demonstrates this asymmetry. Weve been relying on one anothers expertise ever since we figured out how to hunt together, which was probably a key development in our evolutionary history. What is the main idea or point of the article? Participants were asked to rate their positions depending on how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the proposals. They can only be believed when they are repeated. In a study conducted in 2012, they asked people for their stance on questions like: Should there be a single-payer health-care system? James, are you serious right now? They were then asked to write detailed, step-by-step explanations of how the devices work, and to rate their understanding again. Humans need a reasonably accurate view of the world in order to survive. (This, it turned out, was also a deception.) The Stanford studies became famous. Those whod started out pro-capital punishment were now even more in favor of it; those whod opposed it were even more hostile. Kolbert cherry picks studies that help to prove her argument and does not show any studies that may disprove her or bring about an opposing argument, that facts can, and do, change our minds. Such inclinations are essential to our survival. Thousands of subsequent experiments have confirmed (and elaborated on) this finding. In 1975, researchers at Stanford invited a group of undergraduates to take part in a study about suicide. Why do you want to criticize bad ideas in the first place? Here's what the ratings mean: 10 Brilliant. Why don't people like to change their minds? The fact that both we and it survive, Mercier and Sperber argue, proves that it must have some adaptive function, and that function, they maintain, is related to our hypersociability. Mercier and Sperber prefer the term myside bias. Humans, they point out, arent randomly credulous. Out of twenty-five pairs of notes, they correctly identified the real one twenty-four times. This shows that facts cannot change people's mind about information that is factually false but socially accurate. 7, Each time you attack a bad idea, you are feeding the very monster you are trying to destroy. In the Stanford suicide note study, the students stick with what they believe even after finding out their beliefs are based on completely false information. Heres how the Dartmouth study framed it: People typically receive corrective informationwithin objective news reports pitting two sides of an argument against each other,which is significantly more ambiguous than receiving a correct answer from anomniscient source. But I would say most of us have a reasonably accurate model of the actual physical reality of the universe. Ideas can only be remembered when they are repeated. The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker put it this way, People are embraced or condemned according to their beliefs, so one function of the mind may be to hold beliefs that bring the belief-holder the greatest number of allies, protectors, or disciples, rather than beliefs that are most likely to be true. 2. Hugo Mercier explains how arguments are more convincing when they rest on a good knowledge of the audience, taking into account what the audience believes, who they trust, and what they value. We're committed to helping #nextgenleaders. The New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert reviews The Enigma of Reason by cognitive scientists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber, former Member (198182) in the School of Social Science: If reason is designed to generate sound judgments, then its hard to conceive of a more serious design flaw than confirmation bias. As is often the case with psychological studies, the whole setup was a put-on. If reason is designed to generate sound judgments, then its hard to conceive of a more serious design flaw than confirmation bias. She has written for The New Yorker since 1999. Growing up religious, the me that exists today is completely contradictory to what the old me believed, but I allowed myself to weigh in the facts that contracted what I so dearly believed in. Most people at this point ran into trouble. hide caption. Government and private policies are often based on misperceptions, cognitive distortions, and sometimes flat-out wrong beliefs. But hey, Im writing this article and now I have a law named after me, so thats cool. These short videos prompt critical thinking with middle and high school students to spark civic engagement. The students in the second group thought hed embrace it. Humans need a reasonably accurate view of the world in order to survive. They see reason to fear the possible outcomes in Ukraine. Imagine, Mercier and Sperber suggest, a mouse that thinks the way we do. The economist J.K. Galbraith once wrote, Faced with a choice between changing ones mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof., Leo Tolstoy was even bolder: The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.. Overview Youll get a broad treatment of the subject matter, mentioning all its major aspects. Institute for Advanced Study But I knowwhere shes coming from, so she is probably not being fully accurate,the Republican might think while half-listening to the Democrats explanation. February 27, 2017 "Information Clearing House" - "New Yorker" - In 1975, researchers at Stanford invited a group of undergraduates to take part in a study about suicide. Many months ago, I was getting ready to publish it and what happens? Years ago, Ben Casnocha mentioned an idea to me that I havent been able to shake: The people who are most likely to change our minds are the ones we agree with on 98 percent of topics. Now both articles can live happily in the world, like an insightful pair of fraternal twins. The packets also included the mens responses on what the researchers called the Risky-Conservative Choice Test. At the end of the experiment, the students were asked once again about their views. . Why is human thinking so flawed, particularly if it's an adaptive behavior that evolved over millennia? I don't think there is. When the handle is depressed, or the button pushed, the waterand everything thats been deposited in itgets sucked into a pipe and from there into the sewage system. Begin typing to search for a section of this site. Nearly sixty per cent now rejected the responses that theyd earlier been satisfied with. Its easier to be open-minded when you arent feeling defensive. contains uncommonly novel ideas and presents them in an engaging manner. She asks why we stick to our guns even after new evidence is shown to prove us wrong. The students who had originally supported capital punishment rated the pro-deterrence data highly credible and the anti-deterrence data unconvincing; the students whod originally opposed capital punishment did the reverse. In many circumstances, social connection is actually more helpful to your daily life than understanding the truth of a particular fact or idea. Its easy to spend your energy labeling people rather than working with them. You have to give them somewhere to go. Our brain's natural bias toward confirming our existing beliefs. In step three, participants were shown one of the same problems, along with their answer and the answer of another participant, whod come to a different conclusion. getAbstract recommends Pulitzer Prizewinning author Elizabeth Kolberts thought-provoking article to readers who want to know why people stand their ground, even when theyre standing in quicksand. In a world filled with alternative facts, where individuals are often force fed (sometimes false) information, Elizabeth Kolbert wrote "Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds" as a culmination of her research on the relation between strong feelings and deep understanding about issues. The Atlantic never had to issue a redaction, because they had four independent sources who were there that could confirm Trump in fact said this. Reason, they argue with a compelling mix of real-life and experimental evidence, is not geared to solitary use, to arriving at better beliefs and decisions on our own. If they abandon their beliefs, they run the risk of losing social ties. Enjoy 3 days of full online access to 25,000+ summaries Facts Don't Change Our Minds. Instead of just arguing with family and friends, they went to work. Science reveals this isn't the case. And why would someone continue to believe a false or inaccurate idea anyway? Of the many forms of faulty thinking that have been identified, confirmation bias is among the best catalogued; its the subject of entire textbooks worth of experiments. People have a tendency to base their choices on their feelings rather than the information presented to them. 2017. Julia Galef, president of the Center for Applied Rationality, says to think of an argument as a partnership. Concrete Examples Youll get practical advice illustrated with examples of real-world applications or anecdotes. Mercier and Sperber prefer the term myside bias. Humans, they point out, arent randomly credulous. The first reason was that they didn't want to be ridiculed by the rest of the group from differing in opinions. The New Yorker, News is fake if it isn't true in light of all the known facts. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. Justify their behavior or belief by changing the conflicting cognition. Are wearguing for the sake of arguing? The what makes a successful firefighter study and capital punishment study have the same results, one even left the participants feeling stronger about their beliefs than before. But no matter how many scientific studies conclude that vaccines are safe, and that theres no link between immunizations and autism, anti-vaxxers remain unmoved. Sloman and Fernbach cite a survey conducted in 2014, not long after Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. In this article Kolbert explains why it is very difficult . Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The further away an idea is from your current position, the more likely you are to reject it outright. That meanseven when presented with factsour opinion has already been determinedand wemay actually hold that view even more strongly to fight back against the new information. Among the other half, suddenly people became a lot more critical. Victory is the operative emotion. Sloman and Fernbach see this effect, which they call the illusion of explanatory depth, just about everywhere. 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