Learn about the risks of being vaccinated with virologist Paul Duprex. Then, learn about how to overcome the backfire effect, a cognitive bias that pits your beliefs against facts. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss why contradictory facts make your beliefs get stronger, based on the following story about the “backfire effect” from Curiosity.com: https://curiosity.im/2uhxfEz Additional resources from Paul Duprex, director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh and a professor of microbiology and cellular genetics: University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research — http://cvr.pitt.edu/ Paul Duprex on Twitter — https://twitter.com/10queues @PittCVR on Twitter — https://twitter.com/PittCVR Measles: Why it’s so deadly, and why vaccination is so vital | The Washington Post — https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/measles-why-its-so-deadly-and-why-vaccination-is-so-vital/2019/02/15/a452e5c4-2fd0-11e9-8ad3-9a5b113ecd3c_story.html Research from Paul Duprex — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=duprex+wp%5Bauthor%5D Pitt Announces New Director of the Center for Vaccine Research — https://www.upmc.com/media/news/duprex-announcement If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about the risks of being vaccinated with virologist Paul Duprex. Then, learn about how to overcome the backfire effect, a cognitive bias that pits your beliefs against facts.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss why contradictory facts make your beliefs get stronger, based on the following story about the “backfire effect” from Curiosity.com: https://curiosity.im/2uhxfEz
Additional resources from Paul Duprex, director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh and a professor of microbiology and cellular genetics:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/its-always-safer-to-vaccinate-w-virologist-paul-duprex-and-how-to-use-facts-to-beat-beliefs
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about the risks of being vaccinated, in our third and final interview clip from virologist Paul Duprex. You’ll also learn about how to overcome the backfire effect, a cognitive bias that pits your beliefs against facts.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Paul Drupex Clip #3 — Risks of being vaccinated
CODY: This is the third and final clip we’re going to share here on Curiosity Daily from our conversation with virologist Paul Duprex. He’s the director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh, and a professor of microbiology and cellular genetics. We had a great conversation with him about his latest research and some of the science behind vaccines, and you can actually find the full uncut conversation FOR FREE on our Patreon page at patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out. But right now, we’d like to share what Paul told us when Ashley passed along a question from one of our anonymous listeners.
[CLIP 5:10]
ASHLEY: Once again, Paul Duprex is the director of the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh, and a professor of microbiology and cellular genetics. You can find links to his organization’s latest research, social media accounts, and more in today’s show notes. You can also hear our full uncut conversation on our Patreon page at patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com. Some of our Patrons had early access to the interview as our way of saying thanks for your support. Word-of-mouth is the number one way for our show to grow, so please feel free to download and share that uncut interview, or today’s episode of Curiosity Daily, with anyone you think might find it interesting.
The Backfire Effect: Contradictory Facts Make Your Beliefs Get Stronger — https://curiosity.im/2uhxfEz (Cody)
Speaking of vaccines, we want to wrap up by talking about a cognitive bias called the backfire effect. It basically says that when you hear a fact that contradicts what you believe, it actually makes your belief STRONGER. We’ve mentioned it on this podcast before, but new research has found a possible way to get around it. And it’s especially relevant when you’re talking about something like vaccines, which, as Paul said, can be a sensitive subject. The backfire effect happens because your mind is protecting you from the pain of being wrong. It’s a state of inconsistency psychologists call cognitive dissonance. We tend to frame new information in a way that agrees with whatever we already believe. The backfire effect is one of the reasons why last week, our guest Jayshree SAYT said that you can’t just communicate facts. There’s some good news though, thanks to research from the Oxford University Press. Their findings seem to indicate that, yeah, most people are not willing to drop lifelong beliefs at the first appearance of a contrary fact. BUT, the trustworthiness of the source and the fact's realistic implications make a significant difference. Likewise, a review of the research by the UK nonprofit Full Fact found that a lot of the studies that found evidence of the backfire effect, found it the most often with contentious topics and ambiguous claims. So this isn’t an unavoidable phenomenon. According to Professors Philip Tetlock and Barbara Mellers, the most important factor for sidestepping cognitive bias is an outside view. When facts come from a dispassionate, trustworthy, external source, they are more likely to inspire curiosity, which is the first step towards gaining real knowledge. That’s why a media organization’s credibility is fundamentally important. If you don’t trust Curiosity.com, and we tell you a fact, then you’re far more primed to dismiss that fact as propaganda or “fake news.” And why when we talk about something like vaccines, we call in the big guns and help you hear straight from an expert — because it’s the kind of topic that you don’t want to leave any doubt about. So keep your sources in mind the next time you send a link to your friend or family member to try to convince them of something. And to get over the backfire effect yourself, just try to be aware of your biases, and keep an open mind.
ASHLEY: Today’s ad-free episode was brought to you by our Patrons. Thank you so much, Brach Hendrickson, Min Zye, Maksmillian Dee-ka-rev, Walt DeGrange, Mark McCullough, and Jared Breland for your support on Patreon!
CODY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!