The Backfire Phenomenon, Plato's and Conan's Theories

The Backfire Phenomenon

The human mind is naturally inclined to reject new truths, especially when those facts directly challenge their established systems of belief. In equal measure, people are very likely also to react in contempt to the sources of these new truths. Pointedly, Mr. Nyhan argues that “as human beings, you know, the things that we already believe.” Similarly, Plato in The Allegory of the Cave reinforces this notion using the symbolic representation of prisoners who reject the message of the enlightened captive on the premise “that it was better not to even think of ascending”, who even would consider to “put him to death. The conservative human mind, therefore, limits an individual’s capacity and willingness to accept aspects of life in their real forms. The complexities of this limitation conspire to create a phenomenon which Conan terms “backfire”. As suggested both Plato and Conan, this phenomenon is a particularly crucial determinant of how human beings understand truth at the personal level. For instance, Plato argues that the prisoner who remains unaware of the happenings their environment will consider true anything within reach of their perceptions. Whenever external influences stretch these boundaries of the human belief system, humans discover new truths in a fashion similar to Plato’s allegory of the free prisoner who sees fire as the actual source of the shadow. Humans’ reluctance to seek new knowledge and predisposition to challenge new information is also an important obstacle to making informed decisions. To counter the influence of the backfire phenomenon, individuals in possession of enlightening information bear the responsibility of freeing the misinformed or under-informed persons. While so doing, they ought to appreciate that the “prisoners,” as Plato refers them, will actively resist their efforts. At worst, the prisoners will endanger the safety of such enlightened individuals seeking to challenge their belief systems. Despite the potential dangers, enlightenment remains a noble cause.

References

In Politics, Sometimes The Facts Don't Matter . (2016). Npr.org . Retrieved 4 September 2016, from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128490874

Plato's Cave (animated version) . (2016). YouTube . Retrieved 4 September 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ

The Internet Classics Archive | The Republic by Plato . (2016). Classics.mit.edu . Retrieved 4 September 2016, from http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.8.vii.html