Nate Silver Quotes

Most of us employ the Internet not to seek the best information, but rather to select information that confirms our prejudices.

If you tailor your news viewing so that you only get one point of view, well of course you're going to think somebody else has got a different point of view, and it may be wrong.

As people's opportunities to succumb to confirmation bias increases online - only seeking out information that confirms their prejudices - ignorance, extremism and close-mindedness have continued to rise unabated.

People of a certain political view tend to read material of only that point of view … except to cast contempt on the other points of view.

The more a President sits surrounded only by his own views and those of his personal advisors, the more he lives in a house of mirrors in which all views and ideas tend to reflect and reinforce his own.

One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds.

The trouble with radicals is that they read only radical literature, and the trouble with conservatives is that they don't read anything.

Politicians are trapped in their own views.

We now have access to so much information that we can find support for any prejudice or opinion.

Who wants to hear that he is wrong when he can be told that he is right? …. We are losing the ability to change our mind because of our media.

If you only talk to people who agree with you, it’s easy to believe that you’re in the majority.

There's so much to consume that it's very easy to read a headline in the news outlets that you subscribe to that you maybe support and go 'This is how I feel.'

If you go to certain cable news shows, you're generally going to hear the viewpoints that you already have reported back to you. I think there's no harm in that.

I think there is a danger when it comes to fake news because there is some fake news out there, but there's also a danger when you only hear back to you the beliefs you already have.

You're sincere, but in order not to upset your views you avoid talking with people who think differently. You pick your thoughts from conversations with people like yourself, from books written by people like yourself. In physics they call it resonance. You start out with modest opinions, but they match and build each other up to a scale.

When you're surrounded by people who share the same set of assumptions as you, you start to think that's reality.

Most people who are activists and are concerned about issues get their information from sources which reinforce their opinions and give them the facts that they want to hear.

One thing about liberals: It doesn't even occur to them that there is another side to an argument. They are so convinced of the righteousness of their own position that it doesn't dawn on them that a reasonable person might have a different viewpoint.

Anybody who tunes into Rush Limabaugh already knows what he's going to say and is already inclined to agree. So it winds up creating tribes.

Our pride is tied up in being right. We tend to favor data that confirm our beliefs, so we don't see alternatives. Too often, leaders practice defense routines that become self-reinforcing.

Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.

If I'm a conservative, I'll generally watch Fox. If someone's liberal, they'll generally watch MSNBC. They'll basically learn a set of facts that are completely distinct from one another. They'll get their views validated.

There's nothing you can't prove if your outlook is only sufficiently limited.

Ideological amplification happens when like minded people deliberate…they push each other to extreme points of views….The argument pool in a group of liberals will be only liberal. Likewise with conservatives, the other way…. Most of us on most issues do not have a ton of information…we might be steered away from moderation…. Political correctness is a good example of ideological amplification.

Talking with people who agree with you is like jogging in a cul de sac.