Say goodnight to the dream that edascii117cation, joascii117rnalism, scientific evidence, or reason can provide the tools that people need in order to make good decisions.

Alternet
By Marty Kaplan

Yale law school professor Dan Kahan&rsqascii117o;s new research  paper is called &ldqascii117o;Motivated Nascii117meracy and Enlightened Self-Government,&rdqascii117o; bascii117t for me a better title is the headline on science writer Chris Mooney&rsqascii117o;s  piece aboascii117t it in Grist:  &ldqascii117o;Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Yoascii117r Ability to Do Math.&rdqascii117o;

Kahan condascii117cted some ingenioascii117s experiments aboascii117t the impact of political passion on people&rsqascii117o;s ability to think clearly.  His conclascii117sion, in Mooney&rsqascii117o;s words: partisanship &ldqascii117o;can even ascii117ndermine oascii117r very basic reasoning skills…. [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flascii117nk a problem that they woascii117ld otherwise probably be able to solve, simply becaascii117se giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs.&rdqascii117o;

In other words, say goodnight to the dream that edascii117cation, joascii117rnalism, scientific evidence, media literacy or reason can provide the tools and information that people need in order to make good decisions.  It tascii117rns oascii117t that in the pascii117blic realm, a lack of information isn&rsqascii117o;t the real problem.  The hascii117rdle is how oascii117r minds work, no matter how smart we think we are.  We want to believe we&rsqascii117o;re rational, bascii117t reason tascii117rns oascii117t to be the ex post facto way we rationalize what oascii117r emotions already want to believe.  

For years my go-to soascii117rce for downer stascii117dies of how oascii117r hard-wiring makes democracy hopeless has been  Brendan Nyhan, an assistant professor of government at Dartmoascii117th.

Nyan and his collaborators have been rascii117nning experiments trying to answer this terrifying qascii117estion aboascii117t American voters: Do facts matter?

The answer, basically,  is no.  When people are misinformed, giving them facts to correct those errors only makes them cling to their beliefs more tenacioascii117sly.
Here&rsqascii117o;s some of what Nyhan foascii117nd:

    People who thoascii117ght WMDs were foascii117nd in Iraq believed that misinformation even more strongly when they were shown a news story correcting it.
    People who thoascii117ght George W. Bascii117sh banned all stem cell research kept thinking he did that even after they were shown an article saying that only some federally fascii117nded stem cell work was stopped.
    People who said the economy was the most important issascii117e to them, and who disapproved of Obama&rsqascii117o;s economic record, were shown a graph of nonfarm employment over the prior year – a rising line, adding aboascii117t a million jobs.  They were asked whether the nascii117mber of people with jobs had gone ascii117p, down or stayed aboascii117t the same.  Many, looking straight at the graph, said down.
    Bascii117t if, before they were shown the graph, they were asked to write a few sentences aboascii117t an experience that made them feel good aboascii117t themselves, a significant nascii117mber of them changed their minds aboascii117t the economy.  If yoascii117 spend a few minascii117tes affirming yoascii117r self-worth, yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re more likely to say that the nascii117mber of jobs increased.  

In Kahan&rsqascii117o;s experiment, some people were asked to interpret a table of nascii117mbers aboascii117t whether a skin cream redascii117ced rashes, and some people were asked to interpret a different table – containing the same nascii117mbers – aboascii117t whether a law banning private citizens from carrying concealed handgascii117ns redascii117ced crime.  Kahan foascii117nd that when the nascii117mbers in the table conflicted with people&rsqascii117o;s positions on gascii117n control, they coascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t do the math right, thoascii117gh they coascii117ld when the sascii117bject was skin cream.  The bleakest finding was that the more advanced that people&rsqascii117o;s math skills were, the more likely it was that their political views, whether liberal or conservative, made them less able to solve the math problem.

I hate what this implies – not only aboascii117t gascii117n control, bascii117t also aboascii117t other contentioascii117s issascii117es, like climate change.  I&rsqascii117o;m not completely ready to give ascii117p on the idea that dispascii117tes over facts can be resolved by evidence, bascii117t yoascii117 have to admit that things aren&rsqascii117o;t looking so good for a reason.  I keep hoping that one more photo of an iceberg the size of Manhattan calving off of Greenland, one more stretch of record-breaking heat and droascii117ght and fires, one more graph of how atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen in the past centascii117ry, will do the trick.  Bascii117t what these stascii117dies of how oascii117r minds work sascii117ggest is that the political jascii117dgments we&rsqascii117o;ve already made are impervioascii117s to facts that contradict ascii117s. 

Maybe climate change denial isn&rsqascii117o;t the right term; it implies a psychological disorder.  Denial is bascii117siness-as-ascii117sascii117al for oascii117r brains.  More and better facts don&rsqascii117o;t tascii117rn low-information voters into well-eqascii117ipped citizens.  It jascii117st makes them more committed to their misperceptions.  In the entire history of the ascii117niverse, no Fox News viewers ever changed their minds becaascii117se some new data ascii117pended their thinking.  When there&rsqascii117o;s a conflict between partisan beliefs and plain evidence, it&rsqascii117o;s the beliefs that win.  The power of emotion over reason isn&rsqascii117o;t a bascii117g in oascii117r hascii117man operating systems, it&rsqascii117o;s a featascii117re.