Overcoming The Allure Of Fake News
Fake news is not a new problem. Half-truths, massaged facts, and outright lies have always been a part of American politics.
Yet the power of propaganda startled many this election season as new surges of misinformation swept through our screens and newsfeeds. How can so many Trump supporters believe that the unemployment rate has increased in the last eight years? Why did so many Clinton supporters discredit Wikileaks’ documents after identifying an unrelated, obviously fallacious speech transcript?
Gullibility is bipartisan - in fact, our partisanship often predicates our gullibility. Decades of social psychological research finds that our previous beliefs and desired outcomes direct how we process political information. We tend not to criticize arguments that affirm our worldview nearly as much as claims we hope aren’t true.
About the Author
Jared Celniker
Jared is a PhD student in social psychology and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. He studies political and moral decision-making and believes that psychological insights can help improve political discourse and policymaking.
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