Psychological Study Reveals Why Misinformation Is So Effective
An intriguing new study released last week in Psychological Science in the Public Interest reveals why people are more apt to believe false information being fed to them by the media and politicians.
According to the team of psychological scientists working on the study, led by Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Western Australia, the main reason that people are more likely to believe false information (for example, that climate change is a hoax) is because it actually takes less brain power to believe a statement is false than to accept it as truth. Finding the truth takes time and effort that people often don’t care enough to spend on particular issues that aren’t of immediate concern.
A few excerpts from the report:
According to the team of psychological scientists working on the study, led by Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Western Australia, the main reason that people are more likely to believe false information (for example, that climate change is a hoax) is because it actually takes less brain power to believe a statement is false than to accept it as truth. Finding the truth takes time and effort that people often don’t care enough to spend on particular issues that aren’t of immediate concern.
A few excerpts from the report:
The main reason that misinformation is sticky, according to the researchers, is that rejecting information actually requires cognitive effort. Weighing the plausibility and the source of a message is cognitively more difficult than simply accepting that the message is true – it requires additional motivational and cognitive resources. If the topic isn’t very important to you or you have other things on your mind, misinformation is more likely to take hold.
Desmogblog (http://s.tt/1nUnN)
Hi – Will you please post a link to your Blog/Article at The
ReplyDeleteDay Trading Community at vorts.com? Our members
will really appreciate it.
Members include: Other Day Traders, Day Trading Experts and
Professional
It's easy to do, just cut and paste the link and it
automatically links back to your website. You can also add News, Photos, and
Videos if you like.
Email me if you need any help or would like me to do it for
you. I hope you consider sharing with us.
Please feel free to share as often and as much as you like.
The Day Trading Community: http://www.vorts.com/day_trading/
Thanks,
James Kaufman, Editor