Dogmatism predicts resistance to counterevidence regardless of belief direction

Evidence

Very few in the overall sample took extreme positions against Jesus’ divinity (—4 or —3) before they got to the ‘""Roman File: There Was a Jesus” narrative. Four such definite nonbelievers scored in the top quartile on the DOG scale (“Dogmatic Nonbelievers”), and they moved an average of 1.5 units toward greater belief in Jesus’ divinity (p > .20). (Two of the four changed.) Six others were Nondogmatic Nonbelievers, and they moved 2.83 units toward greater belief (p < .05). (Five of the six shifted.) So the DOG Scale also did a fairly good job predicting who among the strong nonbelievers would respond to evidence that went against their beliefs, and who would not. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2721

To summarize this experiment, High DOG students on both sides of the issue typically said they would not be moved by strong evidence against their beliefs. Low DOG students on both sides usually said they would. The scale’s predictions thus proved generally valid.’ — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2722

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors and extends the vault’s authoritarianism-prejudice claims by showing dogmatism as a content-free trait operating across both religious and secular belief systems.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2721; Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 2722