Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds (2017)

We have this weird fetish these last few years with asserting in broad language that people don't change their minds, don't respond to evidence, dig their heels in further when presented with evidence that contradicts their preconceived opinions, etc. It's all over pop psychology and the headlines. Bugs the heck out of me, because if the language they use is literally true, then no one would ever be convinced to change their minds ever. And yet, we do. It's true…

I really dislike this narrative that facts don't change our minds and we are all irrational. The thing is, truth does exert a pull on our beliefs. It's a slow force. It may take years for people to come around to it. Sometimes it even happens on a generational scale. But we are approaching the truth. Everything in history, and everything in our daily experience tells us this. A couple of experiments where researchers manage to fool the people in…

As is often said you cannot reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into. It also goes to show the immense danger in allowing authorities to lie and build a straw man because this leads to permenant damage to the thinking of the people who believed it even when they know later it was a lie. Adopting scientific thinking and evidence is significantly harder work which combined with the bias of prior experience makes it very hard…

Why they didn't in 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18099488 Why they didn't at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13810764