What in the hell do we do about bigots?
by digby
This study challenges some common wisdom about the relative ignorance of conspiracy theory believers:
A growing body of work has examined the psychological underpinnings of conspiracy theory endorsement, arguing that the propensity to believe in conspiracy theories and political rumors is a function of underlying predispositions and motivated reasoning. We show, like others, that rumor endorsement can also be a function of individuals’ group attitudes. In particular, among white Americans, birther beliefs are uniquely associated with racial animus. We merge this finding with other work which shows that rumors are more strongly endorsed by the individuals most motivated and capable of integrating them among their pre-existing attitudes and beliefs.
We find, therefore, that it is white Republicans who are both racially conservative and highly knowledgeable who possess the most skepticism about Obama’s birthplace.
I’m not sure how this study defines “knowledgeable.” Maybe it just means they watch a lot of Fox News, which means they are knowledgeable but their “knowledge” is bogus. But the idea that racists who have more information are more likely to believe bullshit certainly sounds like the average Fox viewer.
It may indicate that one way to get around racism in the white working class is to seek out the real low information voters among them — the ones who aren’t brainwashed by the right-wing media. There have to be a lot of them out there. Most people don’t obsess over cable news and talk radio. They just hear about this stuff on the periphery and maybe get a sense of what their tribe’s position is from a loud-mouthed relative or co-worker. Maybe they are the more open-minded among that cadre?
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