Dec 6, 2025 08:23 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 6, 2025 08:33 PM by C C.)
https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2025/12/why-d...ges-minds/
EXCERPTS: In 2020, amidst the torrent of pandemic misinformation, a tweet claimed that a Covid-19 vaccine would implant tracking microchips in people. Within hours it had been shared thousands of times, spreading fear faster than any scientific explanation could counter it...
[...] For decades, early science communication relied on a simple strategy: present the evidence and expect people to change their minds based on numbers and graphs alone. In science communication studies, this is known as the Deficit Model, and it has been thoroughly debunked. Experience and research have, in recent years, shown that this approach rarely works. That’s because people cling to beliefs because they are entangled with identity, ideology, and community, not because they don’t understand fact-based arguments.
To persuade people effectively, scientists have to go beyond attempting to persuade people using data alone. They have to combine evidence with empathy and storytelling, to craft messages that speak to both the mind and the heart.
If it sounds challenging, it’s useful to understand why it works. The first thing to understand is that cognitive biases make false beliefs stubborn. Humans favour information that confirms what they already think – a tendency psychologists call the confirmation bias. The more emotionally charged a false claim, and the more it fits with someone’s existing belief system, the harder it is to dislodge. In this instance, attempting to correct a belief with facts alone may even backfire, potentially reinforcing them in the other person’s mind, which is known as the Backfire Effect (though the latest evidence suggests those fears may be overstated). This phenomenon helps to explain why vaccine misinformation persists despite decades of public health campaigns sharing vaccine data... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: In 2020, amidst the torrent of pandemic misinformation, a tweet claimed that a Covid-19 vaccine would implant tracking microchips in people. Within hours it had been shared thousands of times, spreading fear faster than any scientific explanation could counter it...
[...] For decades, early science communication relied on a simple strategy: present the evidence and expect people to change their minds based on numbers and graphs alone. In science communication studies, this is known as the Deficit Model, and it has been thoroughly debunked. Experience and research have, in recent years, shown that this approach rarely works. That’s because people cling to beliefs because they are entangled with identity, ideology, and community, not because they don’t understand fact-based arguments.
To persuade people effectively, scientists have to go beyond attempting to persuade people using data alone. They have to combine evidence with empathy and storytelling, to craft messages that speak to both the mind and the heart.
If it sounds challenging, it’s useful to understand why it works. The first thing to understand is that cognitive biases make false beliefs stubborn. Humans favour information that confirms what they already think – a tendency psychologists call the confirmation bias. The more emotionally charged a false claim, and the more it fits with someone’s existing belief system, the harder it is to dislodge. In this instance, attempting to correct a belief with facts alone may even backfire, potentially reinforcing them in the other person’s mind, which is known as the Backfire Effect (though the latest evidence suggests those fears may be overstated). This phenomenon helps to explain why vaccine misinformation persists despite decades of public health campaigns sharing vaccine data... (MORE - missing details)
