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I often wonder, is it the case that strongly held views are correlated with poor understanding of the topic? I mean there is the Dunning Kruger effect, but if
by mikekchar 8y ago
I often wonder, is it the case that strongly held views are correlated with poor understanding of the topic? I mean there is the Dunning Kruger effect, but if I understand correctly that shows a correlation between belief of ability and actual ability (though, not a linear function ;-) ). What I'm interested in is the estimate of certainty. Do people with less knowledge tend to have higher levels of certainty about their opinions in that area? In my experience it is true, but I'm not aware of studies that show this.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoIn this case, I feel it's more about narrative lending its strength to beliefs. The narrative of most anti-GMO voices out there is that of evil megacorps playing god, the way "everyone knows" stereotypical evil megacorps would do. It's simple to understand, easy to argue (megacorps are mostly indifferent, which means they do evilish things from time to time), forms a nice feedback loop where diminished trust lends more credence to it, which further diminishes trust. It doesn't matter whether or not it's true. Getting to truth means digging into details - trying to understand both biology and economics, both genes and trade treaties. This is a messy process, not many care to even begin to do it. The same essentially applies to anti-vaxxers too.