Elizabeth Kolbert's Article: Why Facts Don T Change Our Minds

Humans are hardwired to form opinions and defend beliefs even if they might not be true. The article, Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds by Elizabeth Kolbert argues that humans are miss-led by false information. The rush humans feel when they win an argument supporting their beliefs is a feeling unreplicated by anything else, even if they argue with incorrect information. The article also states that humans tend to make quick judgements without fully understanding a situation. Wide media usage, when information is often incorrect, could put society into a dangerous position. Humans are more likely to agree with the first thing they see even if the information is not completely true, or they do not understand it fully. People then attempt to explain their opinion without fully understanding it themselves. Elizabeth Kolbert asserts that human ancestry predisposed humans to make irrational …show more content…
Confirmation bias uses facts and knowledge that may or may not be true if it solidifies an argument. The flaw to reason is that humans will not change their beliefs if there is other information that corresponds to believed falsehoods. Kolbert mentions a study conducted by Stanford that examines how students react to any evidence, true or false, regarding capital punishment. The outcome shows that students who were in support of the death penalty were only more in favor of it after looking at evidence and the same goes for people who were against the death penalty. Their beliefs only became stronger (Kolbert). It is hard to change one’s mind after they have set it to believe a certain way. Humans’ disregard of facts for information that confirms their original beliefs shows the flaws in human reasoning. The desire that humans have to always be right is supported by confirmation bias. As long as false information is in the world humans will continue to use it to validate their