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The Backfire Effect is a cognitive bias that causes people who encounter information that challenges their beliefs to reject it, and to strengthen their support of their original stance, regardless of whether or not the information is true. Essentially, the backfire effect means that showing people evidence which proves that they are wrong will often end up backfiring, by causing them to support their original stance more strongly than they previously did.
As such, the backfire effect is a subtype of the confirmation bias, which is a cognitive bias that can cause people to only accept information that confirms their beliefs and rejects that which doesn’t. Just as confirmation bias shields you when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you.
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