backfire theory

Protecting his third nest

Did you know it costs US taxpayers $20 billion a year to cool the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq?  That’s right to keep them cooled down we spend more money per year on cooling than we spend on financing NASA.

Have you ever wondered why strange, kookie, peculiar, freakish ideas persist?  Why conspiracy nuts latch on to beliefs and no matter how much evidence is out there to refute it they still believe the untruth and find material to bolster their ideas?

Lately on line there have been articles that refer to studies done by researchers that have determined that when beliefs are threatened by information that doesn’t reinforce the belief but in fact negates it the believer will not give up the belief but will become further entrenched. 

These studies are based upon single instances where the participant is given something to read that disagrees with their ideology, then tested after to see if the factual information changed their mind.  Say for instance one group that believed Saddam had WMD’s was given a paragraph to read that was based upon information correcting this belief and saying there were none.  Instead of believing the new factual information they became more firmly entrenched in their original beliefs.  This condition has been labeled the “backfire effect” and is being pushed on line to influence people not to bother trying to change minds because you won’t succeed.

Nest 2 destroyed last Wed. Now she is on nest 3

Well i decided to research the “backfire effect” and discovered that before it was called “effect” there was other studies done that called a different outcome the “backfire theory.”  The “backfire theory” looks instead at movements that have been created when actions by those in power are perceived as unfair or unjust.  Kind of like what has happened in Wisconsin, where people who were probably ideologically split came together to protect their rights and their jobs.  Where recall petitions have garnered more signatures than those in office received for votes and where those in power have been blindsided by the backlash against their draconian changes.

Anyway

“Conditions for the backfire theory as defined by Brian Martin are “an action perceived as unjust, unfair, excessive or disproportional.”  Martin is one of the originators of "backfire theory", which analyses the political forces at play in cases where repression or injustice inflicted on vulnerable groups in society "backfires" against the perpetrators of

the injustice. According to Martin's theory, authorities commonly use five distinct methods to prevent their injustice from backfiring: cover-up, devaluing the target, re-interpreting events, using official channels and using intimidation and bribery.” Martin

Studies done on the "backfire effect"(which says you won't change your mind) don’t evaluate how a constant stream of factual information can change minds. There is a tipping point at which people can no longer hold onto their beliefs when the facts just don’t support it any longer.  The “backfire theory,” and what happened in Wisconsin is a perfect example of people who can come together regardless of ideology and fight back.

In a study done by Redlawsk, Civettini, Emmerson their abstract says:

“We show experimental evidence that such an affective tipping point does in fact exist. We also show that as this tipping point is reached, anxiety increases, suggesting that the mechanism that generates the tipping point and leads to more accurate updating may be related to the theory of affective intelligence. The existence of a tipping point suggests that voters are not immune to disconfirming information after all, even when initially acting as motivated reasoners.”

If you are continually bombarded with information that trashes what you thought to be true eventually you have to stop believing and re-evaluate. Believing in the “backfire effect” as opposed to “theory” would tend to make one stop trying to change minds. If we bought into “effect” instead of “theory” the powerful can keep us divided and they can get on with squeezing every bit of loose change out of our pockets, shutting down all the social safety nets, and engaging in endless wars.

Right now i believe that there are powerful forces afoot that don’t want us all talking to each other.  If you believe in the "effect" you will stop trying to talk to anyone who doesn't agree with you, but if you believe in the "theory" (like me)you will never give up trying to change minds.

So in my constant work at changing hearts and minds here are a few things we need to do as a country to tend to the deficit and try not to burden the middle class and poor with any more setbacks.

Tax Wall Street fairly

Wind down the wars responsibly

Close down some of our overseas bases

Roll back the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy

Close corporate tax loopholes

As Van Jones says, “We are not stupid. We can do the math.  The pie, the country’s GDP, is getting bigger!  It’s just your slice that is getting smaller. The social contract between corporate America and the rest of America is broken.”

Beautiful pollen at Sunny Isle

The private sector caused the credit crunch, the financial crisis, and the global recession. The public sector bailed out the banks and brought the world back from the brink of ruin, when is the public sector going to get the recognition it deserves?

Pelosi had this to say about Cantor,“Leader Cantor can’t handle the truth when it comes to these tax subsidies for big oil, for corporations sending jobs overseas or giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the country, while they’re asking seniors to pay more for less, as they abolish Medicare,”

Tax cuts don’t produce jobs, the Republicans proved during the Bush years, that tax cuts produce deficits.

Recent studies have shown that states that cut spending have also seen their economies tank.  Jobs have been lost in the states where cuts have been made. In fact the more money cut the more jobs have been lost.  States that have increased spending or maintained the spending levels have seen their states enjoy more private sector jobs and actual increases in the employment statistics. According to the study spending cuts have gone hand in hand with job losses.  http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/27/255010/chart-states-cut-most-spending-jobs/

And finally,

When the history of America's decline as a great power is written, it will be stories like this that are used to illustrate how warped our priorities had become, and how we as a people allowed the corrupt and greedy to hijack our political process to enrich themselves at the expense of the nation, and to use the military to secure corporate objectives not essential to national security.