Recently
I was watching the Bill Maher show on HBO, where he had invited Democrat
governor of Montana, Republican representative from California and actor Ben
Affleck. Bill Maher tried to conduct a
discussion with these two democrats and one Republican on the show on different
fundamental values that the two parties hold.
I was closely listening to their views about the hot topics like jobs,
Obama care, money spent on war. Bill
Maher had also invited a scientist who worked in the Clinton administration and
had strong understanding about global warming and its effects. So when they came to talking about the
environment issue, recent hike in gas prices, and rising temperatures due to
excessive burning of fossil fuels, I chose to listen to the comments from the
expert. Although democrats support
fighting for the cause of global warming I knew that their discussion over
environmental issues are only with reference to the upcoming presidential
elections as no one had actual insight on the topic. I naturally ignored what the discussion panel
was debating on and chose to give selective
attention to Bill Maher and the scientist as they had more important things to share about the topic than others on the panel.
You bring up politics at a very on a very applicable subject. I think that selective listening is happening all over the country right now during the presidential debates. Politics is an area where we are always drawn to the topics and points made in favor of our already established beliefs on the parties or candidates. It reminds me of the primacy/recentcy theory of belief. We believe either the first thing we hear or the last thing we hear on controversial topics and research. From what I recall of the tendency, Americans are primacy, meaning we have a tendency to stick to the first thing we hear and reject ideas to the contrary. We are very sceptical of information that we hear after planting the seed of our first heard facts and sides. Hope you are watching the debates tonight :)
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