Assignment
Begin by reading the passage below
I Know the Truth, So
Don't Bother Me with Facts
Humans have long been dupes, easily deceived by rumors and flat-out lies. This weakness was on full display in the
shouting match over the planned mosque (which isn't really a mosque) at Ground
Zero (which isn't really Ground Zero) in downtown Manhattan. Recently, researchers at Ohio
State University conducted a study to determine how sticky such false beliefs
are and what it takes to free people from believing them.
In the new study, R. Kelly Garrett and Erik
Nisbet, assistant professors of communication at Ohio State University, recruited 750 people who reported
believing at least one of the rumors about the proposed Islamic cultural center.
They then set about to
determine whether exposure to the facts of the case would change their opinions
and, if so, how best those facts should be presented.
Garret and Nisbet came to two troubling
conclusions: 1) it is easy it to
manipulate people's belief systems with insinuating pictures or inflammatory
quotes; 2) even in the best of circumstances, fewer than a third of people
were willing to reverse their positions, regardless of the contradictory
evidence they were given.
Even when people do take time to learn the
facts, the effort often does no good. Garrett cites a body of studies showing
that when subjects are presented with data that contradicts their beliefs, they
often — paradoxically — respond by sticking to their biases even more strongly.
Some of that may be simple ego — none of us like being told we're wrong. But
some investigators are looking deeper, conducting studies of the brain to see
how the prefrontal cortex, the seat of reason, and the amygdala, the seat of
fear and other primal emotions, light up or power down in such situations.
Adapted from Jeffrey Kluger. “I Know the Truth,
So Don't Bother Me With Facts.” In Time, October 29, 2010.
Writing
Directions
Read the
passage above and write an essay responding to the ideas it presents. In your
essay, be sure to summarize the passage in your own words, stating the author’s
most important ideas. Develop your essay by identifying one idea in the passage
that you feel is especially significant, and explain its significance. Support
your claims with evidence or examples drawn from what you have read, learned in
school, and/or personally experienced.
Remember
to review your essay and make any changes or corrections that are needed to
help your reader follow your thinking. You will have 90 minutes to complete
your essay.
Paragraph
1 summary
Ohio State University completed a research about how people
absorbs false beliefs and rumors about Islamic centers, and what it takes to release people from them
Paragraph
2 summary
People tend to believe rumors or false beliefs. According to
researchers’ member, 750 people recruited believed at least one of the rumors
about the proposed Islamic cultural center. But whether people can change their
opinion was also part of this research.
Summary
Most people, easy tends to absorb false beliefs or rumors,
and in the other way it is not that easy to release from them. Representing insinuated
circumstances, and false facts, are going to have stacks of believers, which,
with no check of understanding or drop of sense, are going to be easy followers.
According to a research of Ohio State University, about hoy
sultry are the false beliefs, and what it takes to release people from believing
them, most of the people believed at least one of the rumors presented, and
what were the best facts represented to change their opinion
