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posted by chromas on Wednesday September 12 2018, @02:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the That's-what-they-WANT-you-to-think dept.

In the Salon

There seems to be a lot of science being thrown at the "Trump Phenomenon." Salon covers yet another, and interviews the author.

A new paper, recently presented at the American Political Science Association's annual convention, suggests a widespread motive driving people to share fake news, conspiracy theories and other hostile political rumors. "Many status-obsessed, yet marginalized individuals experience a 'Need for Chaos' and want to 'watch the world burn'," lead author Michael Petersen tweeted, announcing the availability of a preprint copy.

Truth, in such a worldview, is beside the point, which offers a new perspective on the limitations of fact-checking. The motivation behind sharing or spreading narratives one may not even believe can help make sense of a variety of threatening or confusing recent developments in advanced democracies. It also sheds light on disturbing similarities with outbreaks of ethnic or genocidal violence, such as those seen in Rwanda and the Balkan nations during the 1990s.

Preprint of the paper available at PsyArXiv, here. [DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/6m4ts]


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @02:38PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @02:38PM (#733612)

    n/a

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 12 2018, @03:10PM (1 child)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 12 2018, @03:10PM (#733642) Journal

    Eris?

    Typo? Hail Eric maybe? Because Eric is a symbol of stupidity or blurting out the wrong thing?

    Hypothetical example:
    Donald Jr: my dad has very few people that he can trust.
    Eric interrupting . . . yeah, the only ones he can trust are the Russians!
    That would be exactly the wrong thing to add. To most people it would be obvious not to say that for the purposes of this example.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @03:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @03:58PM (#733670)

      Pretty sure GP meant Eris [wikipedia.org], goddess of strife and discord. GP may be a Discordian [wikipedia.org].

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @10:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @10:31PM (#733877)

    +1 golden apple

  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 13 2018, @12:12AM (3 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday September 13 2018, @12:12AM (#733916) Homepage Journal

    Screw Eris, Bacchus FTW!

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday September 13 2018, @02:28AM (2 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday September 13 2018, @02:28AM (#733963) Journal

      Before you get all carried away, Buzzard Minoris, you might want to actually read Euripides Bacchae [tufts.edu], all the way till the end.
      Here's the beginning:

      Διόνυσος

      ἥκω Διὸς παῖς τήνδε Θηβαίων χθόνα
      Διόνυσος, ὃν τίκτει ποθ᾽ ἡ Κάδμου κόρη
      Σεμέλη λοχευθεῖσ᾽ ἀστραπηφόρῳ πυρί:
      μορφὴν δ᾽ ἀμείψας ἐκ θεοῦ βροτησίαν
      πάρειμι Δίρκης νάματ᾽ Ἰσμηνοῦ θ᾽ ὕδωρ.

      (Quick note for the non-classically educated: "Bacchus" is the Latin name for the Greek god Διόνυσος, or Dionysis in Romanization.)