#Fact August 26

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One of the dangers we can learn from studying history is that often an opinion is treated as a FACT. Simply put a FACT is something that has been known to be proven true. I have recently written about opinions.

Examples of opinions treated as FACTS include scientists centuries ago believing the universe was geocentric. A second example was that Peptic Ulcers were caused by stress. The FACT is that Barry Marshall discovered they were infectious and caused by bacterium

When it comes to FACTS I discovered a website called Mental Floss that has an Amazing FACT Generator.

As the political campaigns ramp up people much smarter than me have studied something called Confirmation Bias. We all have a tendency to interpret FACTS in a way that confirms what we already believe.

So no matter how many FACTS you throw out on social media attempting to sway others to change their political opinion, there’s a good chance they are not going to budge. It’s one of the psychology FACTS you’ll just have to accept that occurs.

If you want to sort out FACTS from opinions you may want to read about strategies to overcome Confirmation Bias. Here is a link to an article by Vinita Bansal