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Let’s say that you come across an article about someone who believes the earth to be flat, and your interest is piqued. You proceed to type “flat earth” in your search bar to find more information and click on a few links where so called “flat earthers” explain their theory. The content recommendations you get will rank information about the earth being flat higher, because this is the information you sought out. When the same information is repeated over and over, we tend to believe it – even if it’s completely false. This phenomenon is called the illusory truth effect. False information gives the illusion of being accurate, just by being repeated enough times. Confirmation Bias and the Backfire Effect Now imagine that your investigation into flat earth theory has made you question the shape of our planet: It’s not round, it’s a disc! Most likely you’ll seek out and trust information that confirms this belief, while dismissing any contradicting views. This psychological phenomenon is called confirmation bias. We like to be right, so when someone agrees with us, we believe them. Have you ever had a disagreement with a parent or sibling when you knew that they might be right, but you stood your ground and refused to admit it? The backfire effect is a common psychological phenomenon to describe what happens when people are forced to defend their ideas or beliefs. Instead of changing their point of view it backfires, and their conviction is strengthened. Does it matter what we believe? The amount of information we are subjected to requires us to be critical of the sources we use, and to be aware of some of the pitfalls when we process information. Perhaps it doesn’t seem like a big deal if you believe that NASA has lied about the shape of our planet, but constantly distrusting official sources or science can be dangerous. If come across stöter på piqued väckt sought out sökte efter phenomenon fenomen illusory truth effect illusorisk sanningseffekt, skenbar sanning accurate korrekt confirmation bias bekräftelsefördom
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sibling syskon backfire slår slint, baktänder dismissing avfärdar contradicting motstridiga stood your ground stod på dig subjected to utsätts för pitfalls fallgropar distrusting misstror
