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Does ideology trump facts? Studies say it often does
We like to think that people will be well informed before making important decisions, such as who to vote for, but the truth is that's not always the case. Being uninformed is one thing, but having a population that's actively misinformed presents problems when it comes to participating in the national debate, or the democratic process. If the findings of some political scientists are right, attempting to correct misinformation might do nothing more than reinforce the false belief.
This sort of misinformation isn't hypothetical; in 2003 a study found that viewers of Fox News were significantly more misinformed about the Iraq war, with far greater percentages of viewers erroneously believing that Iraq possessed WMDs or that there was a credible link between the 9/11 attack and Saddam Hussein than those who got their news from other outlets like NPR and PBS. This has lead to the rise of websites like FactCheck and SourceWatch.
Saying that correcting misinformation does little more than reinforce a false believe is a pretty controversial proposal, but the claim is based on a number of studies that examine the effect of political or ideological bias on fact correction. In the studies, volunteers were shown news items or political adverts that contained misinformation, followed by a correction. For example, a study by John Bullock of Yale showed volunteers a political ad created by NARAL that linked Justice John Roberts to a violent anti-abortion group, followed by news that the ad had been withdrawn. Interestingly, Democratic participants had a worse opinion of Roberts after being shown the ad, even after they were told it was false.
Over half (56 percent) of Democratic subjects disapproved of Roberts before the misinformation. That rose to 80 percent afterward, but even after correcting the misinformation, 72 percent of Democratic subjects still had a negative opinion. Republican volunteers, on the other hand, only showed a small increase in disapproval after watching the misinformation (11 percent vs 14 peercent).
Along those lines, a pair of political scientists, Brendan Nyhan of Duke and Jason Reifler of Georgia State, have shown a similar effect, this time concerning misinformation surrounding the presence of WMDs in Iraq, tax cuts, or stem cell research. Participants were shown news reports that contained inaccuracies, followed by a correction. The news reports were not real, but were presented to the volunteers as coming from either the New York Times or Fox News. Again, the findings suggest that facts that contradicted political ideology were simply not taken in; if anything, challenging misbelief with fact checking has the counterintuitive effect of reinforcing that misbelief.
Unlike the Bullock study, Nyhan and Reifler only demonstrate this effect of congitive dissonance on Republican volunteers, and acknowledge that follow-up studies are needed with liberal or Democratic volunteers.
These findings, if true, have worrying implications. Cognitive dissonance won't help people make rational decisions, but it also suggests that there's little point in arguing with someone who holds an opposing belief. Could this response be why, despite being repeatedly refuted in the media, the percentage of Americans who believe Sen. Obama to be a Muslim continues to grow? The research might also apply beyond the political to other attitudes—I'm thinking of the constant flame wars between fans of the PS3 and Xbox 360, or Mac and PC users. Is all that time spent in the Battlefront or the Soap Box wasted?
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Follow the link for more. We like to think that people will be well informed before making important decisions, such as who to vote for, but the truth is that&#... more -
Lehman Collapse Sends Students Job Hunting
Not only has the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy stung longtimers in the financial world, it is also disrupting the plans of business school students from some of the most prestigious programs in the country.
Students from Yale, Michigan, and Emory, among others, are watching their industry collapse, as well as seeing their job offers disappear.
For interns last summer, the mood at Lehman was gloomy, but supervisors rarely betrayed fears of bankruptcy in the future. "We all knew that the situation was pretty bad working throughout the summer," a Michigan senior told the Daily. "But there was always kind of a confidence that we would work it out and things would end up being OK." Now, she is looking for another job after her full-time offer evaporated with Lehman's Chapter 11 filing.
A Yale senior had a similar experience, with Lehman officials telling interns they had no reason to worry. "Things definitely weren't good this summer, but I didn't expect them to get this bad," he told the Daily News. "We were led to believe that by and large, the fundamentals of business were good and things would recover."
Business school career counselors have been scrambling to reach out to affected students and have even heard from some alumni seeking help. With fewer positions available and more veteran bankers looking for jobs, "every student who's interested in banking will take a real serious look at the career they want and the life they want and the risks they take with that choice," said Michigan's business school career development director. Emory's career counselor echoed the sentiment: "This is the time for students...to start considering Plan Bs." Not only has the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy stung longtimers in the financial world, it is also disrupting the plans of business schoo... more -
Harvard reclaims no. 1 spot in U.S college rankings
It's the country's oldest and wealthiest college. It's also the most selective college. Harvard comes in at no.1 in the U.S News and World college report for the first time in 12 years. Other universities made it on the list. Princeton ranked at no. 2 and Yale at no. 3. Stanford and MIT are tied for 4th. UC Berkeley had the highest ranking at no. 21. It's the country's oldest and wealthiest college. It's also the most selective college. Harvard comes in at no.1 in the... more
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Yale hosts high-level Christian-Muslim dialogue
"Senior Christian and Muslim scholars and leaders are meeting in the United States this week seeking common ground in their different faiths to foster better understanding between Islam and the West.
Hosted by Yale University Divinity School, the conference is the first public dialogue launched by Muslim intellectuals in the Common Word group that appealed to Christian leaders last year for discussions among theologians to promote peace.
Most U.S. participants are Protestant theologians and church leaders, including some prominent evangelicals, but some Catholics and Jews also are taking part. The Muslims, both Sunnis and Shi'ites, hail from around the world.
Their conference comes just more than a week after King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's strict Wahhabi sect, hosted an unprecedented meeting of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists in Madrid and pledged to pursue interfaith dialogue.
"We have broken the ice of mistrust between the West and Islam with this initiative," said Mustafa Ceric, grand mufti of Bosnia. "In world affairs today, the rule should not be the argument of force but the force of argument." "Senior Christian and Muslim scholars and leaders are meeting in the United States this week seeking common ground in their diffe... more -
Operation Ivy: Dumpster Diving at Elite Colleges
Operation Ivy depicts the incredible amount of stuff students throw away at the end of the academic year at five elite colleges, Yale, Harvard, Trinity, Williams, and Wesleyan. It shows how people who live and work near the colleges react -- by dumpster diving the stuff for themselves and their families.
Please submit to Slamdance. Thank you.
Contact:
Jean Pockrus
jpockrus@wesleyan.edu
Matt Valades
mtvalades@gmail.com Operation Ivy depicts the incredible amount of stuff students throw away at the end of the academic year at five elite colleges, Yale,... more -
Monkey Menace Reaches Terrifying New Level
It's a well-known fact that the monkeys have been plotting against us since the days of yore. But their terrible plans will get sped up quite horribly once they've mastered the skill of banking. That's right. Someone's been teaching the little hellions how to use money! "[O]ne can get some clues as to how evolution prepared us for money from the burgeoning research that seeks to present animals with economic choices. To gain perspective on human financial decisions, one may ask, what would monkeys do?Keith Chen and Marc Hauser at Yale University taught monkeys about resources that bear a strong resemblance to money. Monkeys don't care about money, per se, but they do care about marshmallows." It's a well-known fact that the monkeys have been plotting against us since the days of yore. But their terrible plans will get s... more
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Yale Demands End to Student’s Performance
Yale University said on Monday that it would not allow a senior to participate in a campus art exhibition unless she made a written statement that her “performance,” in which she repeatedly inseminated herself and then induced miscarriages, was a fiction that she had concocted. In an article on Thursday in The Yale Daily News, the student, Aliza Shvarts, right, was quoted as saying that she had inseminated herself “as often as possible” over several months while taking herbal drugs to induce miscarriages, which she recorded on video to display for her senior-year art project at a show beginning on campus on Tuesday. Her claim drew intense criticism. Yale said last week that Ms. Shvarts had told three university officials that she had not inseminated herself or induced abortions but had made up the story as part of the project. On Friday, however, Ms. Shvarts insisted she had really experienced “repeated, self-induced miscarriages,” although she said that she had not known if she was actually pregnant. Yale officials said the denials were part of the continuing art performance, and on Monday demanded that it end. Peter Salovey, the dean of Yale College, and Robert Storr, dean of the School of Art, also said that they had found “serious errors of judgment” on the part of Ms. Shvarts’s adviser and an art instructor who knew of the project. They did not identify the adviser or instructor, though Ms. Shvarts has said that her adviser was Pia Lindman. Mr. Salovey said that “appropriate action” had been taken against the two teachers, but did not elaborate. Neither Ms. Shvarts nor Ms. Lindman could be reached for comment. Yale University said on Monday that it would not allow a senior to participate in a campus art exhibition unless she made a written st... more
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Art and abortion - one Yalie takes it a bit far
She's definitely going to spark some conversation with this one:
Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement.
Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.
The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock . saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.
But Shvarts insists her concept was not designed for "shock value."
"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse," Shvarts said. "Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it's not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone."
The "fabricators," or donors, of the sperm were not paid for their services, but Shvarts required them to periodically take tests for sexually transmitted diseases. She said she was not concerned about any medical effects the forced miscarriages may have had on her body. The abortifacient drugs she took were legal and herbal, she said, and she did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages.
The display of Schvarts' project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts' self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.
Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room. She's definitely going to spark some conversation with this one: Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement. ... more -
As Goes Harvard …
Thanks to political pressure and Ivy League trends, American universities may begin spending more of their endowments.
Most agree this isn’t merely a wave of academic altruism; rather, it’s the latest development in a long-running battle between congressional watchdogs and the nonprofit sector. Harvard happens to be a tempting target for federal scrutiny since, as Slack notes, its overall endowment (nearly $35 billion) “is more than the GNP of a lot of countries." Thanks to political pressure and Ivy League trends, American universities may begin spending more of their endowments. ... more -
New ovarian cancer test is 99% accurate
Researchers at Yale have developed a very sensitive and specific blood test that is able to detect early stage ovarian cancer with 99% accuracy. Ovarian cancer is 3 times more common than breast cancer and is known as the "silent killer". Researchers at Yale have developed a very sensitive and specific blood test that is able to detect early stage ovarian cancer with 99%... more
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Yale study explains LOLCats phenomenon; evolution is to blame
Humans evolved to be hyper interested in strange animals. Some excuse.
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George Bush's Skeleton in the Closet
More on Skull and Bones society: you've got to research this on your own, because there are only bits and pieces all over. It's incredibly obvious, yet entirely secretive. Is it appropriate for a US president to have an allegiance to a secret society? Particularly when part of the plan is to put other members into positions of power? More on Skull and Bones society: you've got to research this on your own, because there are only bits and pieces all over. It&#... more
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Mike McLeod - Yale Bulldogs Star Running Back
Who says Ivy Leaguers can't be great (professional?) football players too?
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Beauty and Brains: Yale Grad Graces the Runway of America's Top Model
Yale Grad Victoria Marshman '09, will be the first woman from Yale to join the cast of America's Top Model.Tyra Banks says she hopes to, "tear up the Ivy League apart!" Whatever that means...Victoria says she filled out the 15 page application on the spur of the moment and has no interest in fashion. Come on sweetheart you're too smart for us to believe that BS! If you want to be a model fine, just don't play all coy with us. Yale Grad Victoria Marshman '09, will be the first woman from Yale to join the cast of America's Top Model.Tyra Banks says ... more
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Breakthrough on Machu Picchu
Yale University will for the first time provide Peru with an inventory of thousands of artifacts taken from Machu Picchu 90 years ago, Peruvian officials said Thursday, as they work to have the objects returned. Yale University will for the first time provide Peru with an inventory of thousands of artifacts taken from Machu Picchu 90 years ago,... more
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