The Science of Fear: How the Culture of Fear Manipulates Your Brain

by Daniel Gardner

In 1979—when capital punishment was a top issue in the United States—American researchers brought together equal numbers of supporters and opponents of the death penalty. The strength of their views was tested. Then they were asked to read a carefully balanced essay that presented evidence that capital punishment deters crime and evidence that it does not. The researchers then retested people’s opinions and discovered that they had only gotten stronger. They had absorbed the evidence that confirmed their views, ignored the rest, and left the experiment even more convinced that they were right and those who disagreed were wrong. Peter Wason coined the term “confirmation bias,” and countless studies have borne out his discovery—or rather, his demonstration of a tendency thoughtful observers have long noted. Almost four hundred years ago, Sir Francis Bacon wrote that “the human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being a received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects; in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate. . . .” Wise words proven true every day by countless pundits and bloggers.