# Fighting ignorance and the Backfire Effect **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 3, 2017, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686 "2017-08-03T11:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/21 "2017-08-04T00:24:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Even more interesting is that he never actually claimed that Washington had slave-tooth dentures. He asks “what if” he told us that, and then later on he claims that he told us that, but he never actually tells us that. I kept waiting for him to say “BTW, the slave teeth thing? Not actually true” at some point, because I’ve heard about the hippo teeth more times than I can remember, but I never heard anything about slave tooth dentures. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/22 "2017-08-04T02:13:51Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Apparently the cartoonist didn’t bother to actually read the sources he listed for his claim that Washington had a separate set of dentures, made from the teeth of slaves. None of the sources mention a second set of dentures, and the only evidence is that (a) there are human teeth in his dentures, and (b) a notation in his ledger that he paid 122 shillings to “Negroes” for nine teeth. Everything after that is conjecture. Now it may be a reasonable conjecture that they were from slaves, but to state it as fact in the cartoon undermines his entire point, IMHO. It doesn’t, because his point has nothing to do with George Washington’s teeth, but about how people react to information they don’t like. Oddly enough, your post is a pretty good example of exactly what he’s talking about. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/23 "2017-08-04T02:25:01Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I kept waiting for him to say “BTW, the slave teeth thing? Not actually true” at some point, because I’ve heard about the hippo teeth more times than I can remember, but I never heard anything about slave tooth dentures. [http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/george-washingtons-false-teeth-come-slaves-look-evidence-responses-evidence-limitations-history/](http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/george-washingtons-false-teeth-come-slaves-look-evidence-responses-evidence-limitations-history/) ETA I was ninja’d - badly, I think - that is what I get for skimming, but an excerpt from the above source: Without more documentation that might help us find the real story behind George Washington’s dentures, our reactions to the revelation that they included human teeth have more to do with our own worldviews, and even subconscious beliefs about our first president, than with historic reality. All history involves interpretation and personal bias, but with a subject as fraught as slavery and involving an icon like George Washington, responses can be all the more intense and emotional. Stories like this provide us with the opportunity to investigate the evidence, to notice our responses to that evidence, and finally, perhaps most valuably, to examine why we are responding as we do. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/24 "2017-08-04T14:24:45Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > The reasons your arguments induced the backfire effect is because humans are perverse, stubborn, know-it-all self-deceived bastards, and you will never be able to reshape your argument to get through that. > > “None so blind as the one who **will not see**.” Exactly. Often a 2x4 upside the head induces fresh insight. But absent that those folks are a total loss. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/25 "2017-08-04T15:02:35Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It doesn’t, because his point has nothing to do with George Washington’s teeth, but about how people react to information they don’t like. > > Oddly enough, your post is a pretty good example of exactly what he’s talking about. I don’t think so. He told us something shocking about a famous & revered figure that I didn’t like. He provided sources. Upon examination, the sources were weak, and at best, suggested that maybe part of his claim was true, but also open to other conclusions. I didn’t react viscerally or freak out that the information must be wrong. I calmly checked his sources, then decided the info wasn’t worth getting upset about. Had he used an example with sources that were concrete & incontrovertible, I think his point would have been much stronger. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/26 "2017-08-04T15:35:15Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > It’s a little hard to read when the article suggests I’m outraged at things I’m not actually outraged about. It doesn’t actually suggest that. Actually it’s interesting that you saw a misattribution of your feelings, and then you reacted by finding it hard to process the rest of it. That’s what the comic is trying to demonstrate. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/27 "2017-08-04T16:00:30Z")
Cliff Notes: If a fact or assertion challenges a person’s core belief or value they may have a stronger emotional response compared to a fact or assertion that doesn’t. This is due, supposedly, to the brain’s low level defense mechanism which is triggered by apparent threats. There is a method to mitigating that though. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/28 "2017-08-04T16:20:02Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > There is a method to mitigating that though. I don’t believe that. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/29 "2017-08-04T16:39:18Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Some facts are not easily accepted, and others are. Also, some lies are easily accepted. > > The author doesn’t know how to fix this, but we should listen to each other more. And where does the sun rise? What’s the Pope’s faith? Do you really need a dog-and-pony slide show to make that point? I think what we really have here is “The Patronize Effect” ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/30 "2017-08-04T16:59:48Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I think what we really have here is “The Patronize Effect” You think I don’t know what’s going on here? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/31 "2017-08-04T17:19:50Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > No-I’d rather you “summarise” it, please. Sure: emotion can override reason. Let me illustrate that by quoting from the article > [@](#): > > Six of the seven justices who voted in favor of Roe v Wade were Republican-appointed [Here’s](http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/roe-v-wade-approved-by-republican-appointees/article_4fa2fb82-d738-5a11-95b6-650037c19451.html) one of the linked cites. Now, on hearing that in a conversation, a Democrat is more likely to get hot and bothered about it because it contradicts their worldview that all Republicans are evil anti-abortionists (or whatever). But according to the cites, it’s true. Now I, a non-partisan foreigner, don’t have the emotional baggage can view it from a distance and not be emotionally affected one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/32 "2017-08-04T21:01:12Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > You think I don’t know what’s going on here? Not at all. I was following up on the concision of your summary. It was the impersonal _you_ I was using. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686/33 "2017-08-05T01:25:19Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > I don’t believe that. Perhaps you are correct. But until you try with a variety of folks a variety of communication styles it’s hard to know definitively. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fighting-ignorance-and-the-backfire-effect/792686.md?page=1)