The neurology of neurotic belief in candidates

Over at Salon, Robert Burton tackles head-on how voters quickly get fixed and fixated on “their” candidate and often refuse to change their minds. An example:

Last week, I jokingly asked a health club acquaintance whether he would change his mind about his choice for president if presented with sufficient facts that contradicted his present beliefs. He responded with utter confidence. “Absolutely not,” he said. “No new facts will change my mind because I know that these facts are correct.”

Before unpacking Burton more, two thoughts.

First, this shows the ongoing mangling of the English language. This person doesn’t know what the word “facts” mean.

Second, the political clumping of society probably contributes to such belief fixation.

Burton says this reflects a bigger problem of psychology — those at the bottom end of normal on mental scales are most likely to overestimate their abilities. He suggests this as a BushCo epitaph:

“People who lack the knowledge or wisdom to perform well are often unaware of this fact. That is, the same incompetence that leads them to make wrong choices also deprives them of the savvy necessary to recognize competence, be it their own or anyone else’s.”

Closely related to this are two other psychological factors. First is a hard-to-shake belief in our own rectitude. Second is that the average person has horrible lie-detecting skills, or at the least, is horrible at using them.

As a result, we are all plagued by bias, self-deceit and poor character judgment.

Burton says he judges candidates most by their understanding of — and use of — scientific methodology.

Well, to be honest, in that case, not only would BOTH mainstream candidates fail, if you set the bar right, McKinney, Nader and Barr would all flunk too.

So, lest Democrats point the finger at Sarah Palin true-blue believers, or even at diehard PUMAs, let me mention two phrases: “Barack Obama” and “Kool-Aid.”

Hence my Science and Reason Party blog.