FEELINGS VS FACT

Feelings vs. Fact
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Feelings Vs. Fact
Question 1
Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, disagrees with the CNN reporter on the nature of crime in the United States from their differing beliefs. The former House speaker refuses to acknowledge the facts that support the reduction in the levels of crime along with the polls indicating that the average American feels that crime has reduced (Sam & Me Z. 2016). The news reporter, however, bases her argument on the facts received from various reports and polls. While Gingrich indicates that he will base policy on the feelings of the constituents as opposed to the facts, the move is wrong (Oraby et al., n.d). An illustration that supports my assertion from personal experience is the situation in which I decided on my commitment to group study participation based on my feelings as opposed to the fact that the participation in the group project was useful for my studies. The outcome of my decision was dire because I failed to consider the facts of the situation.
Question 2
On page one of the article; the author quotes Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist who says that “The general idea is that it’s threatening to admit you’re wrong…” (Keohane, 2010). The subsequent quote on the third page of the same article supports the idea by indicating that “The more threatened people feel, the less likely they are to listen to dissenting opinions, and the more easily controlled they are” (Keohane, 2010). It is evident that the passionate belief in the absence of facts can result from the fear of admitting wrongness.

Consequently, I have in many situations changed my mind about something I believed fairly passionately after receiving factual information that opposes my beliefs. The change process mainly involved my overcoming of the threat of admitting that I was wrong and embracing the truth. Therefore, my conversion came from accepting the new facts and overcoming my reservations against being wrongs.
References
Keohane, J., (2010). How facts backfire; Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains. Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC, Retrieved from http://archive.boston.com/news/science/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/?page=1
Oraby, S., Reed, L., Compton, R., Riloff, E., Walker, M. & Whittaker, S. (n.d). And that’s A Fact: Distinguishing Factual and Emotional Argumentation in Online Dialogue. University of California Santa Cruz/ University of Utah, Retrieved from https://www.cs.utah.edu/~riloff/pdfs/naacl-arg-wkshp15.pdf
Sam & Me Z. (2016). Feelings vs. Fact – Newt Gingrich – RNC Topic on Violent Crime – Feelings trump FBI Stats. CNN/YouTube, Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnhJWusyj4I