ABSTRACT
In the literature on disconfirming evidence, researchers typically find that people are impervious to data that call into question their beliefs and attitudes (e.g., Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979). Given this literature, one might expect those with the most extreme beliefs and attitudes, that is, those who have the strongest prior theories, would be even less likely to revise their beliefs than those with less strong prior theories. However, Swiderek, Koslowski, and Bern (1997) have found that people are not as impervious to data as has been previously thought, and that the presentation of disconfirming evidence can indeed sway beliefs. In our study, we examine patterns of belief revision among groups of varying extremeness on the issue of capital punishment. We are asking whether people with more extreme beliefs are indeed less likely to revise their beliefs than those with less extreme beliefs.
