Many Still Believe That Saddam Hussein Was Behind 9/11, and Now We Have Some Idea Why

By Emily Badger, Miller-McCune.com
Posted on November 4, 2009, Printed on November 5, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143731/

President Obama has had a hard time dislodging misperceptions about his health care proposal — those stubborn beliefs that there are death panels and free care for illegal aliens that don't actually exist in the legislation. Recent research about the way people defend their faith in false information, though, suggests calling out the inaccuracies may not be all that effective in converting the suspicious.

Sociologists at the University of North Carolina and Northwestern University examined an earlier case of deep commitment to the inaccurate: the belief, among many conservatives who voted for George W. Bush in 2004, that Saddam Hussein was at least partly responsible for the attacks on 9/11.