There's not enough information about the study to assess it's validity, nor is there any reporting on what a variety of others think the results mean. It does explain why information alone doesn't change people's minds. I wish it had been deeper into an analysis of why the town hall meetings were such a disaster. The final sentence suggests they wouldn't have had to be.

this is interesting and researching for this type of information is relevant for all of us. this is only one study which seems to offer important aspects of our cognitive behavior on which to focus more research.

This is a well written and most interesting article. I have been aware of this issue for some time. The story confirms what I have learned. Simon and Garfinkel wrote a song called The Boxer. Parts of the words are 'All lies in jest until a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest,'

One need look no further than a collection of NewsTrust reviews to find substantive evidence of what this article calls ""motivated reasoning" — pursuing information that confirms what we already think and discarding the rest. I believe that overcoming the natural human tendency to engage in motivated reasoning should be central to NewsTrust's mission.

I've always heard that studies this small don't offer statistically significant results. Still, I found the concepts and results interesting.

Badger reports on a study trying to understand why some people's beliefs are not disturbed by facts. Quite interesting, but not as deep as one might hope. The report itself looks more informative.

More evidence of astonishing ignorance of most Americans about the wider world, and what is actually happening in that world. The Bush administration had a field day playing the American public for fools, with of course a good deal of help from prostitute news media.