tony baldwin

tony baldwin

People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say

wespeakfortheearth:

infoneer-pulse:

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.

The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people’s ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments.

As a result, no amount of information or facts about political candidates can override the inherent inability of many voters to accurately evaluate them. On top of that, “very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt, because most people don’t have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is,” Dunning told Life’s Little Mysteries.

» via Live Science

All the more reason why we need better education, better media reporting, more accountability for mistakes/exaggerations/lies/etc.

It took a scientific inquiry to figure this out? Just look at Fox News, or consider that we elected G.W.Bush for 8 years as our President. It seems pretty obvious…
  1. weechesandcream reblogged this from something-passive-aggressive
  2. goldinmyheadx reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  3. kymanijo92 reblogged this from teleological
  4. auroraluciferi reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  5. ad-collections reblogged this from emergentseas and added:
    “The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best...
  6. emergentseas reblogged this from infoneer-pulse and added:
    this just in, people dumb.
  7. llbitch reblogged this from parsingoranges and added:
    The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best...
  8. thetimewarp reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  9. akaihanabi reblogged this from moleskinedailies
  10. parsingoranges reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  11. henrykissinger reblogged this from puremoaning
  12. cannibalinhumanclothing reblogged this from infoneer-pulse and added:
    The party: welcome to it. …You’re late.
  13. unfinite reblogged this from infoneer-pulse and added:
    Part of me dies a little, another part of me wants to say I told you so…
  14. sergeantearlgrey reblogged this from octupusjam and added:
    More Information on this subject by John Green
  15. octupusjam reblogged this from ahandsomeshark
  16. shutdownstrangersandhotrodangels reblogged this from ahandsomeshark
  17. ahandsomeshark reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  18. musemusemuserrr reblogged this from infoneer-pulse
  19. yabamena reblogged this from lafemmeluna and added:
    So basically, the majority of people are stupid. Got it. And it’s a day that ends in ‘y’.
  20. tearthesutures reblogged this from randomactsofchaos
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  24. moleskinedailies reblogged this from theartfulbasterd and added:
    with the lack of education about how the government and its processes work in schools and the media i thought this was...
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