Wait, this is a... a supposition, not an obvious fact?
That people often virtue signal and tailor their purported beliefs as a way to be rhetorically appealing to certain groups?
... Have I woken up in another dimension or is this not just basic social dynamics, psychology, and also political campaign strategy... and marketing?
Did 'social psychologists' just now finally catch up to Baudrillard?
Really hope this starts to sink in with people more. We really gotta evolve past trying to appeal to everyone's reason and morality all the time.
The people trying to destroy public education dgaf if they look stupid or if you have a news article that proves they're a hypocrite
I live in Texas, and I'd regularly bounce between groups of people who were vocally pro-masking and vocally anti-masking. Trying to buck the trend was exhausting in either group. I'd immediately get cold-shoulders and glares if I was out of compliance. People would crack jokes at my expense or try to debate-bro me. Felt like I had a giant bullseye on my back.
Eventually, we just stopped hanging out with the no-maskers until the vaccine arrived. Then it felt less dire to be around old friends and family without fighting the social current.
Incidentally, I've had COVID twice since getting the jab, and both times came by way of my kid being in daycare. If you think adults play fast and loose, holy shit do daycare workers (and toddlers, kinda obviously) not give a shit. Nobody is even trying to keep kids from getting ill, unless you're sending them to some obscenely overpriced daycare.
I'm tired man, can the people who want to be raptured be raptured already
Our interpretation is that people who responded positively to these statements would feel they “win” by endorsing misinformation—doing so can show “the enemy” that it will not gain any ground over people’s views.
The article glosses over the distinction between endorsing misinformation and believing misinformation. I think people often interpret poll questions as expressions of political affiliation, so for example a person who thinks that the covid lockdowns were a mistake might say that covid is caused by 5G because that's the answer that upsets or offends lockdown supporters, not because this person thinks it is the literal truth. In other words, what the authors are seeing is not necessarily sincere belief but rather a deliberate, politically motivated endorsement of statements known to be false.
Edit: a blog I like addressing a similar phenomenon:
You can see that after the Ferguson shooting, the average American became a little less likely to believe that blacks were treated equally in the criminal justice system. This makes sense, since the Ferguson shooting was a much-publicized example of the criminal justice system treating a black person unfairly.
But when you break the results down by race, a different picture emerges. White people were actually a little more likely to believe the justice system was fair after the shooting. Why? I mean, if there was no change, you could chalk it up to white people believing the police’s story that the officer involved felt threatened and made a split-second bad decision that had nothing to do with race. That could explain no change just fine. But being more convinced that justice is color-blind? What could explain that?
My guess – before Ferguson, at least a few people interpreted this as an honest question about race and justice. After Ferguson, everyone mutually agreed it was about politics.
that is conservatives, antivaxxers, flat earthers conspiracy theorist of debunked theories in a nutshell.
"Ugh, your health care advice is too trendy, so I'm not going to follow it because that would make me weak." /s I don't like following many trends, but this isn't the place to make that stand.
Rather than focus purely on the group dynamic, I encourage people to read Madness by Justin Garson. It's an exploration of the neuroprotective aspects of mental illness, the biological reasons why people cling to false hope or pursue delusions.
Considering the research that has been done by psychologists employed by the US disinformation systems producing narratives like QAnon and Russiagate, I assume these tricks are already known quantities being exploited. That's just my read though, Garson never brings up anything like that.
Reverse cargo cult.
Those who think it's good to believe lies/misinformation/disinormation: Religious people. It's them. That's what they do. Make up bullshit, then believe in it when there's zero evidence of it at all.
They don't care about literal truth. They care about belonging to the group of liars that they fit into, because they're liars as well. They're lying to themselves every single day.
Religious people were the #1 cause of spread of COVID. They just had to have church services for a fictional god that's everywhere. Why? They dont' know, it doesn't make sense. They just did it because someone lied to them about some stupid religious crap.
Believing something wrong is never a win.
This paper makes an assumption that there are no known risks with the covid-19 vaccinations, which is factually incorrect, and thus it's engaging in the same type of misinformation reinforcement that it laments
Much of the misinformation is the lack of nuance, or willingness to engage with details...
the easier a statement is to disprove, the more of a power move it is to say it, as it symbolizes how far you’re willing to go. - ie "faith" in religion.
Ignorance.. it's an apt word here..
Holding on to unshakable belief in the most outlandish lies you've been told, always the best way to prove that you're a strong independent thinker who won't give in to outside influence.
“You can’t reason someone out of something they weren’t reasoned into”
This isn't a new idea. I appreciate the article all the same though!
The point is, not to believe the government. That's the "win" in quotes. Same reason why people think the earth is flat or the original moon landing is fake. If the goverment said "nobody was on the moon", then by definition those people would think the opposite and say "government lies, the are hiding something on the moon, they visited it".
The original article, published with a Creative Commons license.
this does spell out what most people already know but maybe couldn't understand it exactly the right way
Reality is a team sport, to some people.
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