Selective inattention can invert a real threat into its opposite

Evidence

Through selective inattention to population demographics, soaring population growth disappears as a problem and population decline is elevated to an alarming one that “haunts our future” (Howe & Jackson, 2007). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2574

Categorization

• XREF: Exemplifies Bandura’s selective inattention mechanism, linking to vault claims that voters can rationalize harmful policy by inverting which demographic pressures are framed as crises. — connects to: The same observable behavior can stem from opposite motivations — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 128
• CANDY: ‘Population decline is treated as the haunting threat while actual overpopulation is ignored’ is a neat example of inverted framing.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2574