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 tes...