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]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @03:18PM (1 child)
^The cynic paints the whole world with the same broad brush.
You are fake news.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12 2018, @09:04PM
I've been tihnking the news was "fake", ie unreliable, for my entire adulthood. Just read it about something you are an expert in, they have no idea what they are talking about. Then read about some politically charged topic, its all "anonymous" sources saying this and that. Do you see news outlets keeping score of the reliability of their "anonymous" sources? They would proudly display this if it was any good.