1. Bullock, John."The Enduring Importance of False Political Beliefs" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Hyatt Regency Albuquerque, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mar 17, 2006 Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2009-11-22 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p97459_index.html>
Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript Review Method: Peer Reviewed Abstract: Much work on political persuasion maintains that people are influenced by information that they believe and not by information that they don't. By this view, false beliefs have no power if they are known to be false. This helps to explain frequent efforts to change voters' attitudes by exposing them to relevant facts. But findings from social psychology suggest that this view requires modification: sometimes, false beliefs influence people's attitudes even after they are understood to be false. In a trio of experiments, I demonstrate that the effect is present in people's thinking about politics and amplified by party identification. I conclude by elaborating the consequences for theories of belief updating and strategic political communication.
