OT: NYT article on, among other things, the limits of our ability to acknowledge what we don’t know

[CA renter]

That was a great article, davelj; thanks for posting it.

My guess would be that this “defect” is actually what enables us to survive. If we could honestly know and understand all of the risks out there, we would be paralyzed by our fears, and would probably accomplish very little…maybe even refraining from reproducing because we wouldn’t want to suject our offspring to the potential threats we see.

When thinking about all the people I know, it’s the ones who are most ignorant about their ignorance who accomplish the most. They just dive into their next venture without any thought about the risks or obstacles they will likely face. What’s interesting, is that they very often succeed, often due to blind luck or being in the right place at the right time.

Like Cardiff and Scaredy, I’m too analytical and quickly see the risks of any given action, so I tend to do nothing…and regret it later when I see how the bolder (and more ignorant???) folk succeeded and greatly benefited from taking those risks (which they largely weren’t aware of in many cases).

It would seem to me that evolution would favor both types of personalities (more analytical and more ignorant) because each type has a trait that would make them succeed when others fail. I would say these personalities complement each other.

[briansd1]

This is a great article about a Russian mathematician.

Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem?

Perhaps the smartest man in the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106247.html?hpid=topnews

[briansd1]

This is a great article about a Russian mathematician.

Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem?

Perhaps the smartest man in the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106247.html?hpid=topnews

[briansd1]

This is a great article about a Russian mathematician.

Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem?

Perhaps the smartest man in the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106247.html?hpid=topnews

[briansd1]

This is a great article about a Russian mathematician.

Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem?

Perhaps the smartest man in the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106247.html?hpid=topnews

[briansd1]

This is a great article about a Russian mathematician.

Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem?

Perhaps the smartest man in the world.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/01/AR2010070106247.html?hpid=topnews

[Arraya]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

[Arraya]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

[Arraya]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

[Arraya]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

[Arraya]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.

[blahblahblah]

[quote=Arraya]http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.[/quote]

Interesting but no surprise, really. I’ve come to the same conclusion just reading the comments section on internet blogs.

[blahblahblah]

[quote=Arraya]http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.[/quote]

Interesting but no surprise, really. I’ve come to the same conclusion just reading the comments section on internet blogs.

[blahblahblah]

[quote=Arraya]http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.[/quote]

Interesting but no surprise, really. I’ve come to the same conclusion just reading the comments section on internet blogs.

[blahblahblah]

[quote=Arraya]http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

This bodes ill for a democracy, because most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.[/quote]

Interesting but no surprise, really. I’ve come to the same conclusion just reading the comments section on internet blogs.

[Author]

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