[ExI] Study Links Disparities in Pain Management to Racial Bias

[William Flynn Wallace]

On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 3:05 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 6 April 2016 at 19:21, William Flynn Wallace wrote:
> > Ignorance occurs in every IQ level.  And Med schools are the most
> resistant
> > to change of any type of grad school.  All of you would be simply aghast
> at
> > the superstitions I found in my Psych 101 students and my Sex class
> > (unbelievable - ask if you want examples).  One study measured
> superstitions
> > and carefully debunked every one of them during the semester.  The
> scores on
> > the superstition test at semester's end did not change.
> >
> > Changing behavior and attitudes is very hard.  Especially if we don't
> take
> > time to think - then we will pop out whatever we've believed the longest.
> >
>
> Studies have shown many times that just presenting people with facts
> will rarely cause them to change previously held beliefs. It might
> even strengthen the wrong belief. It's called the Backfire effect.
>
> There are several factors involved. People don't like to be told that
> they are wrong as they 'lose face' and don't want lower status. When a
> belief is wrong, people need help to build a new story in their brain
> to store the new facts.
>
> This article has useful information:
> <
> http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160323-why-are-people-so-incredibly-gullible
> >
> Quote:
> Our brains don’t let piddling little facts get in the way of a good
> story, allowing lies to infect the mind with surprising ease.
> By David Robson      24 March 2016
> -----------
>
> BillK
>
​The absolutely worst way to change people is to tell them anything that is
substantially different from what they believe, with 'substantially' highly
variable from person to person (although, paradoxically, you will get a few
complete reversals of opinion, like a religious conversion).  The cognitive
dissonance is far too great here, and you will get either nothing or an
actual moving away from your proposed position - and maybe some real
hostility.  Think of it as involving  an investment in their ideas - the
more investment, the stronger the belief and harder to change.

The absolutely best way is to do a variety of Skinnerian shaping:  get them
to accept a view slightly different from their original and keep moving
them from there.  Obviously there are entire books in my library full of
attitude change theories and studies - one of the  most popular areas of
social psych.

But I do love it when some new data or theory comes along and kicks the old
ass theory out of the ball park.​


​bill w​

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