Example of Backfire Effect
- A person who believes vaccines are dangerous is shown scientific studies demonstrating their safety. Rather than changing their mind, they become more convinced of a cover-up and more strongly anti-vaccine.
The challenge to their belief triggered defensive reasoning that strengthened their original position. - Presenting a political partisan with fact-checks of their preferred candidate's false claims makes them more supportive of the candidate, viewing the corrections as biased attacks.
Identity-protective cognition caused the corrections to reinforce rather than undermine support.
Note
Research on this effect has produced mixed results, with some studies showing robust effects and others finding corrections generally work. Context matters significantly.
