51 Brendan Nyhan - Will Facts Matter in the 2014 Election?

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2014

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the show this week we talk to Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan, who has focused much of his research on employing the tools of social science to study fact-checking—why it so often fails, and what can be done to make it work better. The cynical view on fact-checking is "too negative," argues Nyhan. "I think you have to think about what politics might look like without those fact-checkers, and I think it would look worse."This episode is guest co-hosted by Rebecca Watson of skepchick.org, filling in for Indre who is out this week. It also features a discussion of a new study suggesting that religious and non-religious individuals are equally moral, and new research on gender discrimination in job performance evaluations, particularly by men with traditional views of gender roles.iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-mindsStitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-mindsSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Friday, September 12th, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Chris Mooney.
0:06.7	And I'm Rebecca Watson, guest hosting for Indre Viscontas, who is out this week.
0:10.7	Hi, Rebecca. Welcome on. Hi. Thanks. Good to be here, Chris. I'm no Indre, but...
0:16.5	Well, we have to test you. Let's hear that next line. Okay. All right. Each week, we bring you a new in-depth exploration of the space where science,
0:24.3	politics, and society collide. We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover,
0:29.4	and why it all matters. Not bad. You can find us online at motherjones.com slash inquiring
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0:45.4	podcasting app.
0:49.8	Today's episode of Inquiring Minds is sponsored by The Great Courses, bringing you the world's
0:54.4	greatest professors right to your fingertips. For a limited time only, The Great Courses is offering
0:59.7	our listeners 80% off the original price of one of its courses. That course is understanding the
1:05.4	mysteries of human behavior by Professor Mark Leary. It's great. We've talked about it on the show
1:09.9	before. You should totally
1:11.2	check it out. So to find out more, go to the greatcourses.com slash inquiring minds. Once again,
1:17.7	that's the greatcourses.com slash inquiring minds. So here we are in mid-September, and there is a very
1:26.3	important election coming up in the U.S. to determine control
1:29.3	of both houses of Congress. In less than two months, November 4th, we have this election.
1:34.7	So across the country, Senate and House races are unfolding. There's big ad buys. There's
1:40.4	debates coming, big debates between candidates. And across the country, there are these
1:45.5	journalists called fact checkers, and they are trying to keep the candidates honest. They're basically
1:51.8	adherence to this old Jeffersonian theory that, you know, to have an electorate that
	...

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