"Extreme political attitudes may stem from an illusion of understanding"

[applegrove]

Extreme political attitudes may stem from an illusion of understanding

at Phys Org


http://phys.org/news/2013-04-extreme-political-attitudes-stem-illusion.html

"SNIP................................


The research suggests that people may hold extreme policy positions because they are under an illusion of understanding—attempting to explain the nuts and bolts of how a policy works forces them to acknowledge that they don't know as much about the policy as they initially thought.

Psychological scientist Philip Fernbach of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder and his co-authors were interested in exploring some of the factors that could contribute to what they see as increasing political polarization in the United States.

"We wanted to know how it's possible that people can maintain such strong positions on issues that are so complex—such as macroeconomics, health care, foreign relations—and yet seem to be so ill-informed about those issues," says Fernbach.

Drawing on previous research on the illusion of understanding, Fernbach and colleagues speculated that one reason for the apparent paradox may be that voters think they understand how policies work better than they actually do.


..............................SNIP"

[arcane1]

1. "...voters think they understand how policies work better than they actually do"

And that's just how the 1% likes it. Thanks, media!