I'm the OP, and I think that facts only move a small minority of people (like what the study cited in the article found). Although I'd like to believe as you do, my experience on this has been largely to the contrary.

Anonymous wrote:In the end, facts actually matter.

The real question is whether people are willing to put in the effort to separate fact from fiction, or whether they are more comfortable just accepting statements that validate their existing point of view.

But I believe that facts, once fixed in the mind of an individual, affect their positions.

I agree with your last sentence, but would add that it's true of all ideas, even those that are counter-factual. The "fact" that there is something un-American about Obama, for example, is firmly fixed in the minds of many, and definitely affects their positions.

In the end, facts actually matter.

The real question is whether people are willing to put in the effort to separate fact from fiction, or whether they are more comfortable just accepting statements that validate their existing point of view.

But I believe that facts, once fixed in the mind of an individual, affect their positions.

After several years of "debating" (mostly on FB), I've always been discouraged at how little facts seem to influence many people's beliefs. Maybe this is just because of my politics, it seems to least impact those on the right (although I once considered myself as a Republican). Whether it's on the president's birthplace, whether he's a "socialist," whether presidents can impact gas prices all that much, whether new drilling in the US would impact gas prices, global warming.... When confronted with facts that contradict their worldviews, most double-down on their worldviews and dismiss the facts as not valid. I found a great piece a few years ago on this. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this. Are voters enemies of democracy?

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/