ucresearch: America the polarized“People think that they think like scientists,” said Professor Pete
ucresearch: America the polarized“People think that they think like scientists,” said Professor Peter Ditto, who studies human judgment and decision making at UC Irvine. “But really they think like lawyers.”“Scientists don’t care what the answer is: they look at the data and draw a conclusion,” said Ditto. “Lawyers know the conclusion they want to reach, then they harness a bunch of facts to support that conclusion.”And this, said Ditto, is how we construct our political facts, whether we realize we’re doing it or not.Anyone who watches politics knows that biases are rampant on both sides of the political spectrum; pure objectivity and politics rarely mingle. But are either conservatives or liberals more biased than the other?“What we find is both sides are equally biased in their own direction,” Ditto said.People are savvy at spotting bias in other people’s arguments, but they consistently fail to recognize bias in themselves.“Everybody is calling each other out for their own sins,” said Ditto. “In psychology we call it the ‘bias blind spot.’” So true, and not just for politics. -- source link
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