Americans are more divided than ever 鈥 not only along political lines, but on hot social topics such as the safety of childhood vaccines and whether marijuana use is harmful. More disturbing, says 鈥, Q: Many people were surprised at the idea of 鈥渁lternative facts鈥 when White House advisor Kellyanne Conway used the phrase to support the administration鈥檚 claim that President Trump had the largest鈥, A:, No. There鈥檚 certainly been an increase in the rhetoric of 鈥渁lternative facts鈥 in the Trump era, but Trump didn鈥檛 create this; he rode a wave. Liberals and conservatives used to base their political鈥, Q: How did you study it, and what issues did you look at? , A:, We examined people鈥檚 perceptions on a wide array of topics that are socially divisive, including: Is climate change real? Is racism prevalent and influential? Does immigration help or hurt the鈥, Q: If we can鈥檛 even agree on a common set of verifiable facts, how can we resolve some of these pressing public issues?, A:, The results of our research are actually pretty depressing, because this is not going to be easy to solve. There鈥檚 been a massive breakdown of trust in facts promulgated by the government, the鈥, Q: Does education help?, A:, Unfortunately, our data show that people with a college education are even more biased than those with less education. It seems that the effect of higher education is to give people better cognitive鈥, Q: Your research also shows that increasingly, people don鈥檛 want to spend time with those they disagree with., A:, That鈥檚 true. We ran a number of what we call the 鈥淏ob鈥 studies. We鈥檇 ask people, 鈥淒o you want to work on a long-term project with Bob?鈥 Then we鈥檇 show them 鈥淏ob鈥檚鈥 Twitter feed, which indicated his鈥, Q: You write Inconvenient Facts blog at Psychology Today a column for Psychology Today to explain these concepts to a broader audience. Recently, you鈥檝e also started writing for Morgan Marietta鈥, A:, Trust has to be earned, and we (academics) ought to be speaking to the public to develop that trust. But we need to speak in everyday, common language for it to have any impact. A lot of people鈥, Q: You鈥檝e won a lot of teaching awards and mentored lots of students. What鈥檚 your philosophy of teaching, especially in a field that invokes such strong partisanship?, A:, I love teaching at a place where many students are first-generation college students, as I was. They鈥檙e not from elite backgrounds, so this is a place where teaching really matters 鈥 education鈥
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