Higher self-esteem enables people to hear unwelcome facts. For Example: Partisans would be more open
The researchers are Brendan Nyhan (Darmouth College political scientist) and Jason Reifler (Georgia State University asst. prof of political science)"Nyhan and Reifler hypothesized that partisans reject such information not because they're against the facts, but because it's painful. That notion suggested a possible solution: If partisans were made to feel better about themselves — if they received a little image and ego boost — could this help them more easily absorb the "blow" of information that threatens their pre-existing views?" http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/05/09/152287372/partisan-ps...1). Shenkar Vendantam, "Partisan Psychology: Why Do People Choose Political Loyalties Over Facts?" NPR, May 9, 2012. http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/05/09/152287372/partisan-ps...This SPECIFIC research is unpublished thus far, but on Brendan Nyhan's website there is more info on their research and links to reports about it:HIS WEBSITE: http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2012/05/npr-interview-on-partisanship-...3 RELATED REPORTS by Nyhan and Reifer:http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/nyhan-reifler.pdfhttp://mediapolicy.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/...http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/obama-muslim.pdf[verified 4/25/14]