Study: Liberals and Conservatives Equally Deny Reality

More studies like this are needed in these troubling times:

Both liberals and conservatives engaged in motivated interpretation of study results and denied the correct interpretation of those results when that interpretation conflicted with their attitudes. Our study suggests that the same motivational processes underlie differences in the political priorities of those on the left and the right.

Click to expand...

SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research

Amateur politicians abound. It is interesting that, after finding that study result data are intentionally ignored (or, to be more polite, misinterpreted), that you would call for more studies.

Imagine that? /sarcasm

Well, at least we now have a scientific study that verifies that people will deny the results of scientific studies when those results differ from their preconceived ideological beliefs, on both the left and right.

I wonder how many will deny the results of this scientific study as well?

I don't believe it for a minute!

I've told this story here before, but this seems like a good time to re-tell it: right out of my undergrad (in philosophy), I decided to run an informal experiment. I took letters to the editor from the local newspaper, pulled out any that made any kind of argument, classified them as conservative or liberal, symbolized them, and looked for formal fallacies. I expected conservatives to commit many more such fallacies than liberals. And while I did find that conservatives committed more in the 6-month sample, it was only by an insignificant margin probably attributed to simple chance rather than any actual disparities in reasoning power between the two groups. I was forced to conclude that my view of conservatives as stupid was simply incorrect-at least based on the evidence I had to hand.

Taught me a heck of a lesson.

NeverTrumpGOP said:

More studies like this are needed in these troubling times:



SAGE Journals: Your gateway to world-class journal research

Click to expand...

I think it would be more accurate to say they disagree on what reality is. Reality is subject to interpretation when it comes to politics.

Nice. Reminds me that I often end up in arguments with people who insist that the problem is that "liberals" are irrational and make decisions based on emotion rather than cold, hard logic and reason. Nope. We are ALL irrational.