Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Friday, January 8, 2016

Misinformed or Uninformed

Is it better to be misinformed or uninformed, that is the question? I'd never given this any thought until recently when I begin to read statements about Mr. Trump's supporters being misinformed, not uninformed.  Think about that for a minute.

I read an interesting article on FiveThirtyEight that gave me pause for thought.  "Uninformed citizens don't have any information at all, while those who are misinformed have information that conflicts with the best evidence and expert opinion.  In the U.S., the most misinformed citizens tend to be the most confident in their views and are also the strongest partisans.  These folks fill the gaps in their knowledge base by using their existing belief systems.  Once these inferences are stored into memory, they become ""indistinguishable from hard data.""

It seems to me the misinformed mistakenly believe speaking louder makes their argument more credible. 

Does this mean there are times when "ignorance is bliss?"

2 comments:

  1. Ooooo! Great food for thought! I have often used the term "willful ignorance" for those people who don't bother to investigate the facts. I would say that goes hand in hand with "misinformation".

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  2. I suspect 99% of Trump's supporters are misinformed. It amazes me that his campaign is based upon trying to destroy other candidates, yet his followers think this means he's good presidential material!

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