Outrage Overload

A Connors Institute podcast

Outrage 71 – Do Facts Really Change Minds? – Nick Stagnaro

Aired Sep 3, 2025

We’ve all heard it before: facts don’t change minds. But is that really true?

In this episode of Outrage Overload, we dig into groundbreaking research that challenges the conventional wisdom. Social scientist Nick Stagnaro joins us to share findings from his recent study, Factual knowledge can reduce attitude polarization — showing that when people receive an in-depth, factual “training,” their views can shift toward a more nuanced middle ground.

But here’s the twist: while facts can move policy attitudes, they don’t necessarily soften how people feel about those on the “other side.” That deeper problem, known as affective polarization, remains stubbornly resistant.

Listen to the full conversation with Nick Stagnaro now — and discover what his research means for bridging divides in our polarized world.

Michael N. Stagnaro is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford and MIT. He studies how people form, defend, and abandon beliefs in political and religious contexts. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Francisco with a B.A. in Psychology and earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University.