Lamiaceae Site Administrator
Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 7651 Location: To the right of my computer
|
Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 12:46 pm Post subject: Beliefs conform to cultural identity |
|
|
http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/02/24/2332234/Beliefs-Conform-to-Cultural-Identities
Quote: |
"This article describes an experiment that demonstrates that people don't put as much weight on facts as they do their own belief about how the world is supposed to work.
From the article: 'In one experiment, Braman queried subjects about something unfamiliar to them: nanotechnology — new research into tiny, molecule-sized objects that could lead to novel products. "These two groups start to polarize as soon as you start to describe some of the potential benefits and harms," Braman says.
The individualists tended to like nanotechnology. The communitarians generally viewed it as dangerous. Both groups made their decisions based on the same information.
"It doesn't matter whether you show them negative or positive information, they reject the information that is contrary to what they would like to believe, and they glom onto the positive information," Braman says.'
|
If the culture they have grown up in is the only way to accquire information, then is it the culture that is sending people's thoughts askew, rather than people's beliefs conforming to any sense of identity ? _________________ I should update my sig. What to put here for $CurrentYear ? |
|