Moral Change

How does information change people's minds? Information studies has generally assumed that when a person encounters a piece of information, they are informed. This does illustrate becoming informed in some cases, but not all. For instance, sometimes misinformed people simply become more entrenched in their views upon encountering new information. This is because, for us humans, many of our beliefs are simply not based on an ongoing balancing of the facts, but rather on post hoc rationalization and cheerleading of particular views that are already held emotionally. Moreover, information informs us in ways beyond the provision of facts: it also shapes us as persons. In recognition of the ethical dimension of information, I suggest that information can also furnish moral knowledge, which can be defined as knowledge pertaining to how one should act in order to live best. Most of the discussions in philosophy on moral knowledge have focused on art, defined broadly to include literature and performance as well as visual art, and there has likewise been research on this aspect of art in information studies. Research in the information involved in religious conversion shows that people are informed, formed, and transformed by experiences with information and documents. I suggest that all information can contribute to moral knowledge and consequently to human understanding and action. To understand this, we must think beyond what is “objectively present” in an information object toward how that object interacts with the human experiencing it.