Ideology Makes You Stupid

by Stuart Shapiro

Professor Dan Kahan has done research on how people interpret numerical data.  Misinterpreting simple data is common but it is much worse when the data is about a subject on which people feel strongly.

It’s disheartening that most people couldn’t figure that out, though hardly unexpected. But what came next is….well, not unexpected, maybe. But certainly discouraging. Kahan ran the exact same test with the exact same data, except this time the question was about gun bans and crime levels. Half of the time, he presented data suggesting that a gun ban increased crime, while the other half of the time the data suggested that a gun ban decreased crime. And guess what? Among the subset of test subjects who were very good at math, they suddenly got really stupid if they didn’t like the answer they got (chart is above).

It is hard to have a reasoned debate when we can’t even agree that 2+2 =4.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.