Misinformation works, and a handful of social 'supersharers' sent 80% of it in 2020 | TechCrunch
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The studies, by researchers at MIT, Ben-Gurion University, Cambridge and Northeastern, were independently conducted but complement each other well.
    • Rimu@piefed.socialEnglish
      5·
      6 months ago

      IMO getting a bit into the psychology of why people want to believe this crap is pretty key. Narcissism, cognitive bias…

      Check this out https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon. Go into the ‘sources’ folder and start clicking around. A lot of the disinfo sites are in separate files but https://github.com/rimu/no-qanon/blob/master/sources/default.txt contains most of them in a big disorganized pile.

      Also take a look at https://www.reddit.com/r/QAnonCasualties/ to understand the human cost at the individual & family level.

      Google “Alt-right pipeline” to learn about how they’ve intentionally crafted a radicalization process. Also see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g.

      • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        6 months ago

        Thanks man! This is helpful.

        When we talked last, I was talking about the social aspects (crudely understood) of it all - have general mistrust of experts, poor life situation, feelings of, or acutal, social isolation -> find people who seem to have a privileged knowledge others don’t that you agree with, make them your tribe -> have a position in a social group, slowly introducing you to more and more outlandish ideas -> repeat points to recruit others to the tribe and signal social value to said.

        So agree totally with learning about how this stuff works from psychology and human weakness POV being a vital starting point. Appreciate it!

        • Rimu@piefed.social
          3·
          6 months ago

          Yeah that’s pretty much it. Then that gets amplified by recommendation algorithms and toxic social media ecosystems, of course.