Studies Say Ideology Trumps Facts

Anti-Globalism writes "We like to think that people will be well informed before making important decisions, such as who to vote for, but the truth is that's not always the case. Being uninformed is one thing, but having a population that's actively misinformed presents problems when it comes to participating in the national debate, or the democratic process. If the findings of some political scientists are right, attempting to correct misinformation might do nothing more than reinforce the false belief."

Actively misinformed?

[NaCh0]

Good thing slashdot is here to set the record straight.

I don't believe it

[soundhack]

I haven't RTF article, but I don't need to-facts don't matter.

O RLY?

[4D6963]

In other news, new studies say that Cookie Monster thinks cookies are more healthy than broccoli!

Re:Yes

[RuBLed]

No it's not.

Re:Democracy - "the least worst form of government

[Nutria]

What we need is one lone ruler who tells us what to do who has no ulterior motives and hidden agendas beyond making this world the most livable and efficient for as large a fraction of the population as possible.

A Benevolent Dictatorship? That never works in any organization larger than the Python Development Community.

Re:ideology trumps facts and so what?

[rk]

This is the very kind of [eggheaded woolly liberal|reactionary anti-intellectual conservative] thinking that has led our country to a [godless communist|theocratic fascist] condition. Surely you will be [sent to hell|purged in class warfare] for your [sins|crimes].

Re:ideology trumps facts and so what?

[plasmacutter]

i'm sorry, but i'm not.

I've adjusted my views when presented with evidence which contradicted those initial views.

I have never held irrationally to a belief when all evidence pointed to the contrary.

Propoganda television

[REALMAN]

Do people actually watch Fox News? I get my info from Alex Jones. :P

Re:Belief

[Ginger Unicorn]

In my opinion, broadly speaking, there are two kinds of people in the world; those who assume a continuum is actually two discrete choices between its extremes, and those who don't. :-p

Re:Douglas Adams knew it all along

[itsdapead]

Much as I like Douglas Adams, really, he's just paraphrasing Plato.

Actually, in 2159, the trustees of the Adams estate sent a copy of the H2G2 back though a time warp to ancient Greece and successfully sued Plato for copyright breach.

Isn't it terrible when people try and capitalize on the wise and witty sayings of others...?

Re:Not even conspiracy

[Thiez]

> There is no such thing as Truth. We all cling to illusions. You just think your illusion is superior to theirs.

You do realise that your statement invalidates itself? If there is no such thing as truth and everything is an illusion, then so is your statement.

Could it be that you are trying to say that we all have models of the world around us and some of those models model the real world more accurately than others, but not one of them is 100% correct? Because having an inaccurate model of the world isn't really a problem when acknowledge that it isn't perfect (and can make a rough estimate of how imperfect it is) and are willing to correct your model when more data is available.

Damn it seems I invented science.

Nice irony there...

[Anonymous Coward]

Tfa presents a scientific study, with *facts* that show that ideology trumps facts. This guy refuse to belive it cause he thinks it only applies to "close minded prejudiced morons".

I say- Don't be so hard on yourself... ;-)

Re:Not even conspiracy

[Miseph]

All statements are false, especially this one.

Re:Not even conspiracy

[Big Nothing]

Don't move, our agents are coming to get you.

-- The Pope

Re:So she disliked a book and never banned it

[tgd]

And all of you are missing the most important point.

She's hot.

Well hotter than Obama, Biden or McCain, at least.

Completely disagree

[R3d Jack]

I'm a big believer that people are entirely rational and that their conclusions are based on facts, and no study is going to persuade me otherwise!

Re:Fox News

[kwub]

Watching it reminded me of the kind of news propaganda that the Nazi's used in WW2 to convince their population that their cause was just and righteous, and demoralize their enemies.

Because apparently the only certain things in this life are death, taxes, and the application of Godwin's Law.

Re:Not even conspiracy

[genner]

Can everyone please stop saying 'they' and start saying 'we'?

Or are we playing to the self-delusion that everyone except us is broken?

No I'm fine it's just you and to a lesser extent them,

Re:Not even conspiracy

[The Bender]

For more details, see http://www.timecube.com/ [timecube.com]

Re:Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be a bitch to be around...

"Nice day"
"Can you prove it?"
"Well, um...no"
"Then come back when you can"
"Fuck you asshole, if it was a nice day you just screwed it all to hell""

Re:Not even conspiracy

[nschubach]

Your statement isn't nearly as false as this one.

Re:Yes

[Taibhsear]

"Fuck you asshole, if it was a nice day you just screwed it all to hell"

Can you prove it?

Re:Democracy - "the least worst form of government

[ciderVisor]

...and Man creates God by Intelligent Design.

Re:Yes

[operagost]

Mmmm... right wine. Much tastier than left whine.

Re:It was metaphorically speaking

[Tyler Durden]

But in truth I doubt that there's anyone who can tell you exactly how the brain works, and which pathway belongs to the consistency checking job. If we knew that, we'd already have a working AI.

I don't know who said it, but the quote, "If the brain were simple enough to understand, we'd be too simple to understand it," springs to mind. :)

Re:Yes

[Count Fenring]

But the economic heartburn, the terrible liberties-eroding diarrhea... It's just not with it.

Re:Yes

[An Onerous Coward]

I demand a world that makes sense, and where everything is demonstrably either true or false. You and Godel can go hang.