It is NOT about the FACTS - It's all Shared Values

If you have been following along here - and I JUST know you have, this podcast documents an important insight that helps explain a bit our current situation in politics.
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2018/01/29/yanss-120-the-backfire-effect-part-four/

The Good News is that people will accept FACTS that are contrary to what they believe if they are presented clearly.

The Bad News is that our attitudes, values and such are NOT based on facts at all - but rather on the shared values we hold with others. We will find facts to support our values. If you knock one down, we will find others, or just ignore the facts altogether. If we want to move forward together, we need to work on our shared values - and how the heck do we do that?

This also means that things like meditation or mindfulness are not going to move things much. It helps to become fully aware of our shared values, but that will not change them one iota. To do that, we need to interact with others beyond our shared value circle - a rare event indeed.

This podcast had a number of episodes last year dealing with 'The Backfire Effect'. This is a highly cited paper which seemed to say that when you present facts to people, they tend to ignore things that are contrary to their values. The paper also implied somewhat that this would in fact increase their commitment to those facts because of their beliefs. Most of that understanding of the paper was not quite correct - and other researchers have found little confirmation of the Backfire Effect. So they set out to redo the studies with the original authors.

What we have learned is that FACTS are not important when we are dealing with the values or attitudes which people hold. Bluntly stated, no mountain of lies or misstatements by a person or group which we support will undermine our support for that group or value. Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton are not going to gain or lose supporters based on FACTS or information. It is the shared values that people are committed to which determine whom they support.

Giving people more information about vaccines does tend to correct their misunderstanding of the science - it does NOT tend to make them more likely to vaccinate their children. Giving people FBI statistics that gun violence has rapidly declined in recent years does not change their views about gun control. Sean Hannity did not change his view of our fearless leader when he got independent confirmation that the President did try to fire Robert Mueller last year. This fact had NO effect on his support.

We do not go from FACTS, to beliefs, to attitudes, to values, to shared values, to regional cultural norms which then influence our actions. Rather, the regional cultural norms are the key – they drive our values, which we then protect and justify with facts!

So, my question, what are the normative values that bring people to support things like protective nationalism versus inclusive humanity, and warlike bluster versus diplomacy? What shared values support cutting the taxes of the very wealthy and increasing the national debt to be paid by all of us by a trillion dollars. Is this purely the "strong leader" part of our social norms that comes from our conservative side - or it more complex?

And if we can identify those normative values, how on earth does one go about changing them - if one can at all? We are driven by values that are not rational! So? Resort to emotional persuasion. What?

I know we are all in this together - just not sure how I can help here. I also would like to put this on Facebook with a lot less words!

I would really like to understand this better. Can you hellp?