Evidências e dissonância cognitiva No site Open Democracy, Todd Gitlin pergunta-se, no texto "The faith-based superpower", como é que a América pode ser uma superpotência assente na ignorância do seu povo acerca do que se passa no mundo, no Iraque, em particular. Como diria alguém, não será propriamente fé, mas "fezada"). Um excerto:

"(...)The news from home is that a March poll conducted by the University of Maryland's reliable Program in International Policy Attitudes discloses that 57% of Americans think that Saddam Hussein, while in power, gave substantial support to al-Qaida. Forty-five percent think that ?clear evidence? found in Iraq buttresses this position. The same percentage, 45 %, believe that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction before the war. This is, of course, fantasy. There is no such ?clear evidence.? Close to half of America is living in fantasy. This happens to be the near half that is represented by George W. Bush and his government. What shall we make of a faith-based superpower? (...) In other words, the principle of cognitive dissonance is hard at work. The true believers, faced with pesky evidence that counters their faith, wish it away ? the evidence, that is. If they notice irritating counterevidence in the newspaper, they skim. If they hear the words on TV, they forget them. If anything, as the psychologists Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken and Stanley Schachter wrote in their classic study, When Prophecy Fails, the less their predictions pan out, the more some of them will redouble their energies, harden their faith, recommit themselves to proselytize.(...)".