The Backfire Effect – You Are Not So Smart

People on opposing sides of the political spectrum read the same articles and then the same corrections, and when new evidence was interpreted as threatening to their beliefs, they doubled down. The corrections backfired. Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm...
Just as confirmation bias shields you when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it blindsides you...
Contradictory evidence strengthens the position of the believer. It is seen as part of the conspiracy, and missing evidence is dismissed as part of the coverup...
you can never win an argument online... The backfire effect pushes both of you deeper into your original beliefs...
when your beliefs are challenged, you pore over the data, picking it apart, searching for weakness. The cognitive dissonance locks up the gears of your mind until you deal with it. In the process you form more neural connections, build new memories and put out effort – once you finally move on, your original convictions are stronger than ever...
The backfire effect is constantly shaping your beliefs and memory... through a process psychologists call biased assimilation...
Rather than shed their belief and face facts, they rejected science altogether.