Fighting the Backfire Effect

Have you ever noticed that when you present people with facts that are contrary to their deepest held beliefs they always change their minds? Me neither! In fact, people seem to double down on their beliefs in the teeth of overwhelming evidence against them. This is called the Backfire Effect and it happens when people perceive their worldview to be under threat by conflicting The psychology underneath the backfire effect is called cognitive dissonance, or the uncomfortable feeling you get when a deeply held belief is contradicted by the facts. Are we doomed to always be at odds with the facts and other people when they don’t agree with our beliefs? Can we shred the backfire effect and reduce the problem of cognitive dissonance? Yes! In this video, Michael Shermer presents 6 things we can do. These may not always work to change people’s minds, but they may reduce unnecessary divisiveness so rampant in our culture.

Watch the video