Thursday, September 19, 2013

blog entry 2



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