blog 2

People have always been easily fooled by rumors and by things they read in the papers without knowing its fact. in the text " I know the truth, so don't bother me with facts" by Jeffery Kluger he gives an example of people arguing about a mosque that is planned to be build at ground zero, which he says is in fact "not really a mosque". researchers at Ohio State University wanted to see if they could make up peoples minds after presenting them the truth about the rumors. In order to succeed, how would they best present the truth? Two assistant professors of communication, R.Kelly Garrett and Erik Nisbet asked 750 people if they believed in the rumors about the mosque being built, every single one of them believed in at least one of the rumors related to the Islamic spiritual center. Less than a third of the people were willing to change their opinions even though they presented them with strong evidence proving them the opposite. Garrett believes that one of the reasons why people are so stubborn to hold on to their beliefs when someone contradict them, can be their ego, the fear of being wrong. Other investigators researching to see if it can have something to do with our brains, how we react when we get confronted. Jeffery ends his paper by saying that we should base our decisions on what we believe by fact and not only what we read or hear.