http://www.alternet.org/media/143731/many_still_believe_that_saddam_hussein_was_...
President Obama has had a hard time dislodging misperceptions about his health care proposal — those stubborn beliefs that there are death panels and free care for illegal aliens that don't actually exist in the legislation. Recent research about the way people defend their faith in false information, though, suggests calling out the inaccuracies may not be all that effective in converting the suspicious.
Sociologists at the University of North Carolina and Northwestern University examined an earlier case of deep commitment to the inaccurate: the belief, among many conservatives who voted for George W. Bush in 2004, that Saddam Hussein was at least partly responsible for the attacks on 9/11.
Of 49 people included in the study who believed in such a connection, only one shed the certainty when presented with prevailing evidence that it wasn't true.
The rest came up with an array of justifications for ignoring, discounting or simply disagreeing with contrary evidence — even when it came from President Bush himself.
"I was surprised at the diversity of it, what I kind of charitably call the creativity of it," said Steve Hoffman, one of the study's authors and now a visiting assistant professor at the State University of New York, Buffalo.
The voters weren't dupes of an elaborate misinformation campaign, the researchers concluded; rather, they were actively engaged in reasoning that the belief they already held was true.
This type of "motivated reasoning" — pursuing information that confirms what we already think and discarding the rest — helps explain why viewers gravitate toward partisan cable news and why we tend to see what we want in The Colbert Report. But when it comes to justifying demonstrably false beliefs, the logic stretches even thinner.
By the time the interviews were conducted, just before the 2004 election, the Bush Administration was no longer muddling a link between al-Qaeda and the Iraq war. The researchers chose the topic because, unlike other questions in politics, it had a correct answer.
Subjects were presented during one-on-one interviews with a newspaper clip of this Bush quote: "This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al-Qaeda."
The Sept. 11 Commission, too, found no such link, the subjects were told.
"Well, I bet they say that the commission didn't have any proof of it," one subject responded, "but I guess we still can have our opinions and feel that way even though they say that."
Reasoned another: "Saddam, I can't judge if he did what he's being accused of, but if Bush thinks he did it, then he did it."
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From: current.com
All I can say about this is, it's the same dimwhits that think with their captors. They and their brains have been kidnaped by an ideology that won't let them think for themselves. Evidence of the Iraq's having anything to do with 911 is just not there and they still try to justify the murderous tactics of their leaders cause being wrong would pose a perplexing situation that they have never encountered. The same people cannot say sorry or gees I guess I was wrong. When I was stationed in Germany I met an elderly German who still thought Hitler was right in everything he did. So as you can see there will always be people who cannot give up thinking they are right. You can see it in several posters here at current when you give them the evidence it's as if they never read it.
We live in a country that's dominated by stupid people. Why are we still spending money on something we already know?!!
Instead of wasting money, lets use it to educate the folks in America. Imagine if you ask those same 49 people if they know that our congress is run by rich people, they would argue with you instead of listen and learn the truth.
For this reason is the same for those whom categorize Muslims into the same category as Terrorists/Extremists....They probably do believe in God..
Complete BS. Bush never cited Saddam for 9/11. Stephen Hayes documented ties between Saddam and AQ, but that doesn't mean he was behind 9/11.