Research Shows The More Intensely We Believe Something As True, We Hold That View Even If We Learned It Was False

Wanting to Believe Something Can Make it Real (To Yourself)

New research shows that the more intensely we believe something to be true, the more likely it will resurface in the future, even if we have learned it was false.

Cognitive psychologist Andrew Butler of Duke University, psychologist Lisa Fazio of Carnegie Mellon University and Elizabeth Marsh of Duke found that it's possible to correct misinformation, but the correction may not last much more than a week.

Their study of 50 students showed the more strongly someone believed they were right, the more efficient they were at accepting and remembering a correction.

Half the participants that immediately took the same test again after learning the correct answers corrected their mistakes 86% of the time. They were also more likely to get it right the second time if they had really believed their previous answers were correct than if they had less confidence in their facts.

The other half waited one week to take the test a second time, but they only corrected their errors 56% of the time.  In just one week, nearly 50% of the time they regressed to their desired, but untrue, answers.  "It seems like a relatively transient thing," Butler said. "Our results indicate that over time, you are going to shift back to that misconception that you had before."

Butler believes that it's possible that simply repeating the test, and correcting the answers, over and over will gradually condition the brain to process and retrieve information more efficiently. Maybe, with practice, he suggests, we can learn how to toss out bad information.

Social media, the Internet, email, and all those technologies that link us together make us vulnerable to one of the strongest memory enhancers: repetition.  Elections and recurrent presidential messages, particularly those reiterated endlessly by the media, show the power of repetition.  Repetition is currently the tool of choice to marginalize abortion and God, claim government growth is beneficial, conservatism is dangerous, man-made global warming has cataclysmic results, stimulus spending works, etc.  These are the themes sold today nearly everywhere you look.  If you control the message you control what is “real” to people, with or without the facts to support it.  If you manage to overwhelm the system with your message, even if grossly untrue, the isolated critic will seem to be the “loon.”

"People are exposed (to misinformation) over and over again, so it's no wonder that people come to believe it," Butler said. "When they do, if they believe it very strongly, our study shows it's very easy to correct this in the short term. But as they go on about their lives, over time, they forget it. They remember the misinformation."

People want to believe or disbelieve certain things," Butler said. "Our research assumes people are open to correction. People who don't want to believe in another candidate, for example, may not be open to even considering that the new information is correct."

It is my personal opinion that in order to counter the “misinformation machine” the truth must use the same resources and weapon of choice – repetition.  Only when the truth gains equal footing will it get the credit it is long overdue.  Moreover, if truth ever finds the light of day, the U.S. will be reborn.