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Your Political Facebook Posts Aren't Changing How Your Friends Think (qz.com)

An anonymous reader writes:It may be hard to resist airing political grievances or appealing to voters on social media during a U.S. presidential race as heated as this one. But no one wants to hear about your politics, least of all on Facebook. Those long rants about how Trump is a bully and a buffoon, Hillary is a crook, and conspiring against Bernie Sanders has doomed America forever aren't changing voters' minds, a new study found. A staggering 94% of Republicans, 92% of Democrats, and 85% of independents on Facebook say they have never been swayed by a political post, according to Rantic, a firm that sells social media followers. The firm surveyed 10,000 Facebook users who self-identified as Republicans, Democrats, or independents. The only thing those opinionated election posts are doing is damaging your friendships. Nearly one-third of Facebook users surveyed said social media is not an appropriate forum for political discussions. And respondents from each political affiliation admitted they've un-friended people on Facebook because of their political posts.

4 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. The Tyranny of Specificity by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your Political Facebook Posts Aren't Changing How Your Friends Think

    This study is just a rip-off of earlier research into human psychology--specifically, of all previous research into human psychology--which has proven pretty conclusively that nothing anyone says has ever changed anyone's mind about anything ever.

    1. Re:The Tyranny of Specificity by sinij · · Score: 5, Funny

      .. has proven pretty conclusively that nothing anyone says has ever changed anyone's mind about anything ever.

      I was going to reply to your post with a detailed rebuttal, but you changed my mind.

  2. Re:Incomplete title... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, most people are stupid, and utterly fail to grasp how politics actually moves and breathes. So when they lament the stupidity of others, they are pretty much on-target. It is only when they praise their own superiority that they err.

    *I*, of course, actually am smarter than most people, and as such I represent that special case that other people incorrectly think they are.

  3. Re:Duh! by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Funny

    “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”

      Werner Heisenberg

    He's overstating it. He was uncertain about the outcome.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.