On July 30, 2017 ProCon.org CEO Kamy Akhavan moderated a discussion on how political views are formed and how they are changed at the Politicon conference. Panelists for “ProCon.org Presents: Building Beliefs – How We Form Our Political Views” included:
Amie Parnes – Senior White House Correspondent for The Hill; author of New York Times #1 bestseller Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign
John Phillips – CNN political commentator; host of The Drive Home on LA’s KABC 790; Columnist for Orange County Register
Shermichael Singleton – CNN commentator; Republican political consultant; fired as Deputy Chief of Staff at Dept. of Housing and Urban Development for criticizing President Trump
Lesley Stahl – veteran 60 Minutes correspondent; one of America’s most honored and experienced broadcast journalists; former moderator of Face the Nation.
Much has been written about confirmation bias and its contribution to increasing partisanship, echo chambers, filter bubbles, legislative gridlock, the lack of civil discourse in public spaces, and even the anxiety associated with Thanksgiving conversations. Since 2004, ProCon.org has existed to counter those trends and return respectful conversation and informed citizenship to our democracy. Over the course of the organization’s history, ProCon.org has worked with the most prominent experts in political psychology, technology, education, civic engagement, and media to explore strategies for overcoming confirmation bias and scale those strategies to achieve real change.
