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Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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For those of you who missed it, AAM's Dispatches from the Future of Museums reported on a fascinating story from the Boston Globe titled How Facts Backfire. Here's a quote:
"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."
Seems to me this has tremendous importance to all of us who struggle with why the public is so resistant to issues such as evolution, global warming, and others. If laying out the facts actually reinforces people's preexisting prejudices, what are the implications for us? The article also includes this quote:
"One avenue may involve self-esteem. Nyhan worked on one study in which he showed that people who were given a self-affirmation exercise were more likely to consider new information than people who had not. In other words, if you feel good about yourself, you’ll listen — and if you feel insecure or threatened, you won’t. This would also explain why demagogues benefit from keeping people agitated. The more threatened people feel, the less likely they are to listen to dissenting opinions, and the more easily controlled they are."
So maybe it means that we need to focus less on facts and more on helping people feel good about themselves as learners. There has been a lot of discussion in the ASTC community of late about the need to be aggressive advocates for issues we care about, based on the observation that the old way — presenting information and letting people draw their own conclusions — hasn't worked. But this article seems to point in exactly the opposite direction. I would love to hear what you all think.
Here's the link to the full story: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/
Chuck Howarth, Vice President
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G Y R O S C O P E I N C
283 Fourth Street, Suite 201
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tele: 510.986.0111
web: www.gyroscopeinc.com
blog: http://museums-now.blogspot.com
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