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Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

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Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#11

Post by AnimalMuppet »

wetpaws wrote: post #5

I dismiss this fact as it does not fit into my worldview

Funny, but what about those who agree with it? Do they agree with it because it's true? Or just because they've dismissed the facts that don't agree?

This idea means that you can't really trust anything that you think is true, including this idea. To some degree it is, not quite self-refuting, but at least... self-skepticism-causing? I don't know a good word for what I'm trying to say. But it leads you to question the truthfulness of it, at least to some degree.

That said, observation leads one to think there is an element of truth to it. It can be taken too far, though.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#12

Post by austincheney »

Twice I have been through interviews that use hours of psychology assessments to filter candidates. One of those was a large hedge fund. Through that I have learned that objectivity is a measurable and identifable personality trait that is astonishingly rare.

Most humans are hardwired to seek mutual security, which means banding together as a stress coping mechanism. That incidentally means some natural revulsion of originality, objectivity, individuality, and even honesty. More important are group conformance, mutual reassurance, and perceptions of social security.

This is readily observable when you take a group of people who have never worked together and are generally unfamiliar with the outdoors and drop them into an outdoor military training exercise, such as college ROTC junior classmen. Naturally they congregate really closely together and wait for somebody to tell them what to do with minimal or no initiative, all of which is a bad idea in modern military training.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#13

Post by leereeves »

coding123 wrote: post #8

> Within the conservative political blogosphere, global warming is either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online communities, vaccines, fluoridated water and genetically modified foods are known to be dangerous. Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy. To this day you'll find most well off (and extr…

> To this day you'll find most well off (and extreme) democrats avoiding GMO foods, protesting vaccines as well as avoiding fluoride in water. I don't think that's a republican issue. Especially in portland that consistently votes democratic but also NO to GMO, Flouride and Vaccines.

I found that claim surprising so I did a quick "fact check".

About fluoride: true. "For the fourth time since 1956, Portland voters reject fluoridation"

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/05/portland_fluorid...

About GMO: mixed. "Sixty-two percent of voters in Portland's Multnomah County supported " a measure to label (but not ban) GMOs, that was defeated statewide.

https://www.agweb.com/article/oregon-voters-reject-gmo-label...

About vaccines: uncertain. I wasn't able to find evidence of this.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#14

Post by davidw »

coding123 wrote: post #8

> Within the conservative political blogosphere, global warming is either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online communities, vaccines, fluoridated water and genetically modified foods are known to be dangerous. Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy. To this day you'll find most well off (and extr…

I'm supposed to be avoiding politics here, but:

I thought vaccines were kind of a 'fringes of both sides' issue until our Republican rep here in Bend, Oregon got the rug pulled out from under her by her own party:

https://www.oregonlive.com/health/2019/05/vaccination-boosti...

I was surprised, I didn't think it'd go down that way.

The sheer vitriol that our rep gets on her social media because of that one thing is quite something to behold.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#15

Post by anonuser123456 »

austincheney wrote: post #12

Twice I have been through interviews that use hours of psychology assessments to filter candidates. One of those was a large hedge fund. Through that I have learned that objectivity is a measurable and identifable personality trait that is astonishingly rare. Most humans are hardwired to seek mutual security, which means banding together as a stress coping mechanism. That incidentally means some natural revulsion of…

>Through that I have learned that objectivity is a measurable and identifable personality trait that is astonishingly rare.

How does one test for this? I would like to mark my own belief to market.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#16

Post by MikeGale »

Remarkable how these debates reveal how many have a "scientific" attitude. Generally very few.

There is no such thing as "done science". Science is about hypotheses that are questioned and challenged to come up with a better hypothesis.

I'm astonished how this simple thing is not evident in much of the debate.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#17

Post by Sarcasmatic »

coding123 wrote: post #8

> Within the conservative political blogosphere, global warming is either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online communities, vaccines, fluoridated water and genetically modified foods are known to be dangerous. Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy. To this day you'll find most well off (and extr…

Vaccine "skepticism" used to be more prevalent among the (mostly left) urban health freaks. But that is changing rather rapidly, see for example https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/27/anti-vaccine-repub....

This might be a good example actually of people self-sorting into one of the two tribes. And Republicans (not conservatives) have conquered the science-is-bad spectrum so thoroughly they don't need to fear competition in the foreseeable future.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#18

Post by 0xff00ffee »

mmsimanga wrote: post #9

> This approach succeeds most of the time when the issue is, say, the atomic weight of hydrogen. The article is interesting but I think misses one critical point. Most "facts" aren't as clear cut as the weight of hydrogen. Most answers to questions will differ according to conditions. As an example not all people will respond the same to a treatment regimen. Low carb doesn't work for everyone for different reasons so…

Aren't Southern history books still teaching the War of Northern Aggression?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/03/26/c...

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#19

Post by makomk »

coding123 wrote: post #8

> Within the conservative political blogosphere, global warming is either a hoax or so uncertain as to be unworthy of response. Within other geographic or online communities, vaccines, fluoridated water and genetically modified foods are known to be dangerous. Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy. To this day you'll find most well off (and extr…

"Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview." Fact checkers and journalists are human, and it's not hard to guess at the worldview held by the author of this article.

Re: Humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

#20

Post by mynameishere »

Right-wing media outlets paint a detailed picture of how Donald Trump is the victim of a fabricated conspiracy...None of that is correct

Day 1 after the election. On Day 1 after that guy was elected the media--95 percent of it, in lockstep--said the following: "Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia, etc, etc, etc." For years.

And then they dropped it when the shit didn't stick as planned.

So, yes, the title of the article is correct.

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