Verified by Quiz: You're the Flip-Flopper
Studies show that everyone's a little flexible with the facts.
By Jonah Comstock published September 3, 2012 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016
Disagreements between Republicans and Democrats don't stop at matters of opinion, according to recent research from political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler. While a healthy dose of confidence can quell our predisposition to bend the truth to our needs, we're all inclined to disbelieve something that threatens our worldview—even a verifiable fact. Are you guilty of fudging the truth to bolster your biases?
Take the quiz below to find out.
1. The number of U.S. residents with jobs has not increased in the past two years.
True or False?
If you picked true, you're more likely to be a conservative, with a vested interest in Obama's failure. People can quibble over whether the recovery has been fast enough, but there has indeed been job growth under Obama, with more than 4 million jobs created between 2010 and 2012.
2. After the 2007 troop surge, the number of insurgent attacks in Iraq increased.
True or False?
If you picked true, you're more likely to be a liberal. If you're a liberal who opposed sending troops to Iraq, you might want to think that the surge was a failure. Indeed, 40 percent of anti-war respondents guess that attacks increased post-surge—but they are wrong.
3. Global temperatures have not risen in the last 30 years.
True or False?
If you picked true, you're more likely to be a conservative. Forty percent of Republicans say temperatures have decreased, despite a preponderance of data to the contrary. The fact of global warming shouldn't have much to do with politics, but climate change denial has become conceptually linked to conservatives.
