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Computer Model Seeks to Explain The Spread of Misinformation, and Suggest Counter Measures

posted by janrinok on Sunday January 16 2022, @10:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the By-the-inch,-it's-a-cinch-but-a-mile-takes-a-while dept.

gznork26 writes:

We've previously discussed ( https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=21/12/11/1847236 ) how it becomes impossible to reverse the polarization of a community once their differences become too great, and how that plays out both here at SN and in the wider world. Science Blog has a piece ( https://scienceblog.com/527745/computer-model-seeks-to-explain-the-spread-of-misinformation-and-suggest-counter-measures/ ) about a PLOS paper titled "Cognitive cascades: How to model (and potentially counter) the spread of fake news" ( https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261811 ) which uses an interesting computer model to explore how this actually happens.

The model demonstrated that if the new information is too much at odds with a person's existing belief, it will be ignored. Furthermore, if that belief is connected with the person's identity, their current belief will be strengthened as a defense against cognitive dissonance. Interestingly, though, a succession of new information that gradually nudge the person to adjust their beliefs can, over time, cause the person to adopt a belief that is very different from the one they started with. This sounds like how psy-ops manipulate targets to accept extreme views.

What was the gradual change of ideas that have led national political parties to be ever more different from one another, and who fed them those messages?

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @11:08PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 16 2022, @11:08PM (#1213274)

    It's not a buzzword. It has clear meaning, though perhaps more expansive than mathematicians would prefer. Fascists benefit when others insist on narrow, binary definitions.

    I shall polnt out an excellent resource [theanarchistlibrary.org], written by Umberto Eco, which highlights how important it is that fascism exists in multiple dimensions. Three takeaways:

    • Not all elements need be present at once for your nation (and you) to get fucked over by fascism. Two or three is usually enough.
    • Because there are over a dozen elements to build with, different flavours of fascim can have totally disparate category basis - they appear unrelated only on the surface.
    • Fascists take advantage of lazy heuristics - people like binary definitions because they're simple. Fascists change just one or two things in their agenda and then say "we're not fascists" with a straight face to suchlike lazy people.

    Orwell's take is a great starting point. But it's only a start. Eco made the problem comprehensible to non-academics. Rigid definitions, as Aristotle pointed out, are only useful in one field (and it's not politics).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 17 2022, @11:51AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 17 2022, @11:51AM (#1213372)

    And yet you fail to both refute his point and to define fascism.
    Historically (and the original definition), fascism was the amalgamation of state power and corporatism.
    Currently, "Fascism" is a derogatory term that means "Authoritarians I don't like".

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 17 2022, @02:56PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 17 2022, @02:56PM (#1213387)

      I'm not doing the homework for some random stranger whose primary feature is being a disingeneous asshole on the internet.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 17 2022, @04:21PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 17 2022, @04:21PM (#1213403)

        Fascist.