My Take | The fatal blind spots of American democracy
- New research by psychologists is exposing the cognitive biases and incapacities that stand in the way of having an informed electorate to make contemporary democracy work
“People who think they know the most end up the most influenced by inaccurate ideas,” said David Rapp, a psychologist at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
I know exactly what he means, not because I am a psychology expert, but because for a very long time, I was very much like that. Not any more, though. The older I get, the less I care if I am right and you are wrong – just so long as I know I am right.
In two research papers published in Memory & Cognition and the Journal of Experimental Psychology, Rapp and graduate student Nikita Salovich find that people are prone to overconfidence the less they know about a subject. I find this rather amusing, though the real-life consequences are anything but.
“News reports continue to document people who refuse to accept Covid-19 as real and vaccine initiatives as helpful, even as their family, friends and neighbours fall victim to the pandemic,” Rapp said.
“As another example, a shocking number of [Donald] Trump supporters believe he won the US presidential election despite a substantial (and continually growing) number of procedural validations and legal demonstrations that [Joe] Biden won fair and square.
06:35
US Congress certifies results of presidential election after Trump supporters storm the Capitol