From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media.

I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This show is devoted to the idea of doubt, its costs and benefits.

America runs on the casting of doubt.

Doubt over global warming.

Doubt over the veracity of the Congressional Budget Office,

in the nation's intelligence agencies, in the honesty of all the engines of accountability,

including the mainstream media, and lately over the functioning of democracy itself.

Here's Chris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State, and Vice Chairman of Trump's

Advisory Council on Election Integrity, Wednesday on MSNBC.

Again, you think that maybe Hillary Clinton did not win the popular vote?

We may never know the answer to that question.

How do you say we may never know the answer to that question? Really? you say we may never know the answer to that question?

Really? The votes for Donald Trump that led him to win the election in doubt as well?

Absolutely.

It can be awfully hard to unsew the seeds of doubt.

Doubt and denial, even in the face of hard evidence, is often the easiest course, especially when it comports with your worldview.

In fact, studies have shown the existence of a backfire effect, whereby people actually double down on their false ideas when they're confronted with irrefutable facts.

I learned this in 2010 when I spoke to Brendan Nihann,

professor of government at Dartmouth College,

and one of the researchers behind the discovery of the backfire effect.

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