[ExI] Science confirms: Politics wrecks your ability to do math

[BillK]

Everybody knows that our political views can sometimes get in the way
of thinking clearly. But perhaps we don’t realize how bad the problem
actually is. According to a new psychology paper, our political
passions can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills. More
specifically, the study finds that people who are otherwise very good
at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably
be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against
their political beliefs.

<http://grist.org/politics/science-confirms-politics-wrecks-your-ability-to-do-math/>

For study author Kahan, these results are a fairly strong refutation
of what is called the “deficit model” in the field of science and
technology studies — the idea that if people just had more knowledge,
or more reasoning ability, then they would be better able to come to
consensus with scientists and experts on issues like climate change,
evolution, the safety of vaccines, and pretty much anything else
involving science or data (for instance, whether concealed weapons
bans work). Kahan’s data suggest the opposite — that political biases
skew our reasoning abilities, and this problem seems to be worse for
people with advanced capacities like scientific literacy and numeracy.
“If the people who have the greatest capacities are the ones most
prone to this, that’s reason to believe that the problem isn’t some
kind of deficit in comprehension,” Kahan explained in an interview.
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That's why politics and religion are verboten in conversation.
When fundamental beliefs enter, logical reasoning exits stage left.


BillK