Word.ws English Dictionary

backfire effect

backfire effect noun: the finding that, faced with evidence that contradicts their beliefs, people can reject the evidence and believe even more strongly.

Noun

backfire effect (plural backfire effects)

  1. The finding that, faced with evidence that contradicts their beliefs, people can reject the evidence and believe even more strongly.

Forms of backfire effect

pluralbackfire effects

Origin of backfire effect

Coined by Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler.

Questions about backfire effect

What does backfire effect mean?
Backfire effect means the finding that, faced with evidence that contradicts their beliefs, people can reject the evidence and believe even more strongly.
What part of speech is backfire effect?
Backfire effect is a noun.
What is the plural of backfire effect?
The plural of backfire effect is backfire effects.

Words near backfire effect in the dictionary

  1. backfillings
  2. backfills
  3. backfin
  4. backfins
  5. backfire
  6. backfire effect
  7. backfire effects
  8. backfired
  9. backfirer
  10. backfirers
  11. backfires

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backfire effect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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