Science & Technology

When It Comes To Politics and 'Fake News,' Facts Aren't Enough

By Maggie Penman,

Shankar Vedantam, Tara Boyle, Jennifer Schmidt, Renee Klahr, Rhaina Cohen, Chloe Connelly

Published March 13, 2017 at 8:00 PM CDT

The myth that vaccines cause autism has persisted, even though the facts paint an entirely different story.

In today's political climate, it sometimes feels like we can't even agree on basic facts. We bombard each other with stats and figures, hoping that more data will make a difference. A liberal might show you the same climate change graphs over and over; a conservative might point to the trillions of dollars of growing national debt. We're left wondering, "W hy can't they just see? It's so obvious!"

Certain myths are so pervasive that no matter how many experts disprove them, they only seem to grow in popularity. There's no shortage of peer-reviewed studies showing no link between autism and vaccines, for example, but these are no match for an emotional appeal to a parent worried for his young child.

Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, studies how our minds work and how we process new information. In her upcoming book, The Influential Mind, she explores why we ignore facts and how we can get people to actually listen to the truth.

Tali shows that we're open to new information – but only if it confirms our existing beliefs. We find ways to ignore facts that challenge our ideals. And as neuroscientist Bahador Bahrami and colleagues have found, we weigh all opinions as equally valid, regardless of expertise.

So how do we identify the experts, the people who have the correct answer about a given fact? Economist Drazen Prelec and colleagues recently published research that shows how to identify what they refer to as "the surprisingly popular vote" on a given topic.

Still, having the data on your side is not always enough. For better or for worse, Sharot says, emotions may be the key to changing minds.

Hidden Brain is hosted by Shankar Vedantam and produced by Maggie Penman, Jennifer Schmidt, Rhaina Cohen, and Renee Klahr. Our intern is Chloe Connelly and our supervising producer is Tara Boyle. You can follow us on Twitter @hiddenbrain, and listen for Hidden Brain stories each week on your local public radio station.

Additional Resources

Tali tells us that fear is a powerful motivator for inaction, but positive feedback is a better motivator for action. She talks abouta study in which health care workers were given positive feedback for washing their hands.

Tali talks about the ability of strong emotional appeals - and even some powerful speeches - to synchronize brain activity across listeners and between listeners and speakers.

Sometimes crowd wisdom fails us - but the "surprisingly popular vote" means that we can still learn the right answer to a question, even if most of the crowd is wrong.