Why do People Believe Rumours, How to Change their Minds
How to change people Minds who believe rumours
According to Psychology, Why People Believe Weird Things
and 8 Ways to Change Their Minds.
Let's just say that some people believe weird stuff and
leave it at that. It turns out that just one of the fascinating reasons that
people accept odd ideas is that they keep getting repeated, even if only to
debunk them.
So, where does all this misinformation come from, why do
people believe it and how can right-thinking people counter it?
Where misinformation comes from
1.
Rumours and fiction
People love sensational stories. They like to pass on
tales that make the listener very happy, disgusted or afraid: anything that
provokes a strong emotional response.
Neutral stories, which are probably more likely to be
true, but much more boring, therefore get short shrift.
More bizarrely, people have been shown to believe things
that they've read in novels that have clearly been totally made up. This is
true even when:
They are obviously works of fiction,
and when they are told the fiction contains
misinformation,
and when the real facts are relatively well-known.
This may be partly because people's defences tend to be
lower when they're consuming popular entertainments.
2.
Politicians
We may all be aware that politicians will say anything to
get elected, but can we tell the difference between the truth and the lies
they've told?
Studies have found that, in fact, people find it very
difficult tell the difference. It seems that knowing that politicians lie is no
barrier to people believing those lies.
3.
The Media
The usual sources of misinformation in the media are
oversimplification and the need for providing balance.
The need for balance is an interesting one because the
issues themselves aren't always 'balanced'. For example over 95% of climate
scientists agree that the Earth is warming due to greenhouse-gas emissions, but
you wouldn't know that from many media debates on the issue, which are hobbled
by the perceived need to always provide a 'balanced' viewpoint.
4.
The Internet
There are a lot of good things to be said about the
internet but it's still a source of fantastic amounts of misinformation. Here's
a frightening fact:
"A survey of the first 50 Web sites matching the
search term "weight loss diets" revealed that only 3 delivered sound
dietary advice."
Plus people tend to seek out information that confirms
their existing points of view. And this is an exercise that has become much
easier now the internet provides such a huge range of viewpoints. No matter
what people believe they can find some other people who also believe it to back
them up.
Why people
believe misinformation
It's pretty clear that lies and misinformation are
floating about all over the place. But if we all know that politicians, the
media and the internet sometimes lie, then how come some people end up
believing it?
The problem is that the way people go about believing
things (or not) is fundamentally weird. Few bother actually checking the facts
for themselves; the majority use these mental short-cuts:
Does it feel right? In other words does the new
information square with what I already believe? For example, a Republican is
more likely to accept untruths about where President Obama was born because the
lie is convenient.
Does it make sense? Things that are easy to understand
are easier to believe. The mind repels complicated stuff, defending itself by
saying: oh, it's probably a lie (see my previous article: 8 Studies
Demonstrating the Power of Simplicity).
Is the source believable? People who seem authoritative,
like those in positions of power, are more likely to be believed. For example,
doctors can create havoc by giving bad advice in public because people tend to
believe them.
Who else believes it? People prefer to go along with the
herd. Unfortunately people also have in inbuilt bias towards thinking that most
other people agree with them, even if, in reality, they don't.
But this still doesn't explain why people continue to
believe all kinds of weird stuff, even after it's been proven to them that it's
false. It turns out that even once misinformation has been completely retracted
and those involved have admitted it was lies, the misinformation is difficult
to kill.
There are all sorts of reasons but one is based on how
memory works: we tend to find it much easier to recall the gist of things
rather than the exact details. Usually this is handy because it means we can
learn specific things, say that cooking beef makes it easier to digest, and
generalise it to the fact that cooking makes many foods more palatable.
The down side of this is that it's easy for people to
remember the gist of some piece of misinformation (the moon is made of cheese),
but forget that they heard it from a totally unreliable source (a mischievous
child).
8
ways to counter misinformation
So, is it possible to kill off misinformation?
Lewandowsky and co-authors say yes, but it's hard and you will need help from
these 8 psychological techniques:
1.
More than the truth
Changing people's minds isn't just about telling them they
are wrong; if only it were. To be convinced people need to hear an alternative
account that explains why something happened, not just that the misinformation
is wrong. Ideally it should also explain the motivations for the lie.
2.
Short and sweet
This alternative account, though, shouldn't be too
complicated. The shorter it is, the sweeter it will work. Give people too much
and they switch off: just a few salient facts will do.
3.
Don't repeat the myth
Try to avoid repeating the myth. Remember that people
find the gist of things easiest to recall. If you keep repeating the myth,
you're shooting yourself in the foot.
4.
Here comes some misinformation...
You'll have to repeat the myth once, though, so people
know what you're talking about. So tell them beforehand that there is
misleading information coming.
5.
Facts facts facts
Then, after the myth, keep repeating the facts. Each
repetition builds up the rebuttal's strength in people's minds. The power of
repetition to influence people is clear, see: The Illusion of Truth.
6.
Attack the source
What is the source of the misinformation? And what do
they know? Nothing! Encouraging people to be a little more sceptical can help.
One of the challenges here is that people tend to believe
those who say things that fit in with their worldview. So that's why it's
important to...
7.
Affirm world-view
You have to keep the audience onside, even if you're
telling them things they don't want to hear. You can do this by framing things
within the audience's world-view. For example you might say to a 'birther':
"Hey, neither of us likes Obama or his politics, but the fact is he was
born in Hawaii."
Telling people things they don't want to hear is a
balancing act. You've got to go far enough to make the point, but not so far as
to put them off.
8.
Affirm identity
Another way of avoiding people's natural resistance to
facts they find unpleasant is to get them to affirm their identity. So you
might indirectly get people to think about things that are important to them
like their family, friends and ideals.
Research suggests this helps people deal with
inconsistencies between their beliefs and the new information that is
conflicting with it.
Mud
sticks
Of course all these techniques are already used by
opinion-formers and influencers, which is why it's so important to know about
them. As Lewandowsky and colleagues conclude:
"Correcting misinformation is cognitively
indistinguishable from misinforming people to replace their preexisting correct
beliefs. It follows that it is important for the general public to have a basic
understanding of misinformation effects... Widespread awareness of the fact
that people may "throw mud" because they know it will
"stick"...will contribute to a well-informed populace."
Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1288797
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