Understanding why people believe the things they believe is core to understanding the phenomenon of fake news and disinformation. And helping people become more information and media literate (think the Inform level of the IAP2 Spectrum) is core to public engagement and, frankly, the future of democracy. Knowing that it’s human nature to feel first and to think second, it’s understandable that people’s political feelings are grounded in what they they’ve experienced, not your objective data and facts.
If you’re skeptical about this – and I don’t blame you if you are because you haven’t had enough experience with it – consider a deeper dive into the data that supports the point. (See what I did there?)