Lissette Garcia
Dr. O’Brien
ACWRI
4 Nov. 2015
Summary: “How Facts Backfire” One Sentence Summary: In “How facts backfire”, Joe Keohane emphasizes that some people tend to have a very strong opinion on a subject that they are not well informed of, but when they are provided with the accurate information they deny it and oppose what is true with their original beliefs that are generally incorrect. Paragraph Summary: In Joe Keohane’s essay, “How facts backfire”, he starts his argument by asserting that scientists have identified people having a habit of not changing their beliefs when given facts. A study done at the University of Michigan, states that people strengthen their beliefs when confronted with facts that may contradict their beliefs. Keohane asserts that some people have their mind set strong on how they take in information and therefore create a strong opinion on the information with the beliefs they already have. When someone is given accurate facts that are against their judgment, they may automatically reject the information because they refuse to accept that they may be wrong. The consequence to having false information can lead to, when it comes to voting, people letting their personal opinions interfere with what they vote for and not vote based on what is good for everyone. …show more content…
Keohane describes research and studies that demonstrate how people reject facts that contradict their original beliefs. When people learn about a subject they may exclude the parts of the information that do not conform to the beliefs they already have. Therefore, often people create an opinion that doesn’t include the complete truth. When faced with a fact that contradicts their belief, people seem to attack the facts right away and refuse to accept that they can be wrong because no one likes to be