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The Backfire Effect
- Thread starter SgtHulka
- Start date
Or cognitive dissonance.
You can't really just shove facts at somebody and expect them to come around. You have to plant the seeds of an idea in their head and let them come up with the idea themselves. Don't ask me how to do it, I'm terrible at it.
I can attest to this idea. I was in sales for a while and had considerable success. Telling is not selling. You have to give them just enough to convince themselves. People follow emotion before logic. Emotion sells.
A lot of people seem to prefer “feeling good” to honesty and truth. If the truth is likely to get in the way of their feeling good then defensiveness (and sometimes doubling down on the belief being challenged) is likely to ensue.
AFAICT, cognitive dissonance is part of the "why" of this effect: people resolve it by doubling down.
I swear the LCD mindset boils down to avoidance of mental discomfort, including that of simply thinking about stuff instead of just reacting to it.
(LCD = Least Common Denominator, for those for whom it's an unfamiliar term)
Then again, my opinions should always be taken with a grain of salt. I just figured out I'm most likely somewhere on the Autism spectrum, which would explain a lot about me not thinking quite the same way most people do.
Information is in a constant state of movement, whereas beliefs are generally static.
*exhales smoke cloud*
*exhales smoke cloud*
I'm very fortunate. I seem to be going in reverse of most people. The older I get the more open minded I become. I love learning new things. And I love paradox shifts in my own life
That being said, let's look at this from two angles. You already presented the angle of the person receiving the "facts". The problem is, there is so much information out there about pretty much everything these days that the person PRESENTING the "facts" could also be a zealot for his/her cause who is blinded by his/her belief system.
In short, who gets to decide what is a "fact"? We won't delve into any potentially troublesome issues here. But you could put me on a debate team, give me either side of an issue, and I could go into the interwebz and find you hours of "facts" to back up my side and destroy yours. I could find research from prestigious universities that backs up both sides of the argument. I could find you experts who are well respected on both sides and show you hours of interviews.
I've been on a nutrition journey for a couple of years now. I listen to audio books and podcasts on health/well being/nutrition pretty much all day at work.... hours per week. In one podcast you'll have on a guy who has studied vitamin C, and nothing else, for decades. He'll swear we should be taking 20 times the recommended daily allowance and that he'sbeen doing it for years. He'll give you a list of benefits that will make you swear vitamin C is the fountain of youth. Shoot over to another podcast, and another guy, whose credentials equal the last guy, will swear that if you take that much vitamin C he can list for you the systems in your body that you're destroying. He'll tell you all about the negative consequences of such actions.
In short, "facts" usually include an agenda these days. People are trying to sell books, establish a brand, get interviews on notable shows of all kinds, sell products that will make your life better, win an election, save the planet, etc.
We could spend all day on the question "What is a fact?"
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
You are a lizard. Some disagreements with the majority of the human species is to be expected.
Cool subject. Never knew there was a known aspect of psychology called Backfire Effect. I see it, or something related, in action by far too many folk in real-life or online. It's got my interest and will be reading more on occasion. Thanks for the homework assignment, @SgtHulka LOL.
Found this along the way. A comic of the Backfire Effect inspired from a Podcast called "You Are Not So Smart".:
You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you - The Oatmeal
Found this along the way. A comic of the Backfire Effect inspired from a Podcast called "You Are Not So Smart".:
You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you - The Oatmeal
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