Read Online The Misinformation Age How False Beliefs Spread Cailin O'Connor James Owen Weatherall 9780300234015 Books

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Download As PDF : The Misinformation Age How False Beliefs Spread Cailin O'Connor James Owen Weatherall 9780300234015 Books

The social dynamics of “alternative facts” why what you believe depends on who you know

Why should we care about having true beliefs? And why do demonstrably false beliefs persist and spread despite bad, even fatal, consequences for the people who hold them?
 
Philosophers of science Cailin O’Connor and James Weatherall argue that social factors, rather than individual psychology, are what’s essential to understanding the spread and persistence of false beliefs. It might seem that there’s an obvious reason that true beliefs matter false beliefs will hurt you. But if that’s right, then why is it (apparently) irrelevant to many people whether they believe true things or not?
 
The Misinformation Age, written for a political era riven by “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and disputes over the validity of everything from climate change to the size of inauguration crowds, shows convincingly that what you believe depends on who you know. If social forces explain the persistence of false belief, we must understand how those forces work in order to fight misinformation effectively.

Read Online The Misinformation Age How False Beliefs Spread Cailin O'Connor James Owen Weatherall 9780300234015 Books

"If you are interested in all the different ways in which information, including false rumors and bogus theories, can spread in a society, you should read this book. It has lots of really interesting examples to illustrate the underlying theory, but also explains why information can spread that way. The authors are leading researchers who use computer modeling to simulate the spread of information, and they use the computer models to analyze real-life cases. This book is a pretty breezy read, but if you want more of the details, you can also go to their websites and read their research papers."

Product details Hardcover 280 pages Publisher Yale University Press (December 11, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 0300234015

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The Misinformation Age How False Beliefs Spread Cailin O'Connor James Owen Weatherall 9780300234015 Books Reviews :

The Misinformation Age How False Beliefs Spread Cailin O'Connor James Owen Weatherall 9780300234015 Books Reviews

• What a great book!!
  It draws on social networks, social epistemology, history and philosophy of science, and current events to give us a better understanding of the spread of misinformation and the dangers of propaganda in a free society.
• I'm a technical professional in a tech-rich region of the country, so I'm used to being tasked by everyday conversations to consider novel notions. This book activated these same challenge reflexes, allowing me to stay in my engaged-comfort-zone. It's undoubtedly a book by intellectuals for intellectuals, and I'm not sure I would have bought it if it wasn't, the world currently being what it is.
  
  The authors clearly decided early on that persuasion would not be among their goals, which is laudable but would certainly detract from their publication-release "buzz"; I see this as an unavoidable artifact of modern book publicity, and I'll ignore it. The book is properly a scientific anchor-point, as opposed to a policy statement, and policy wonks should look elsewhere for inspiration.
  
  The book excels in accurately describing the gradual subversion that the historical notion of "marketplace of ideas" has endured over more than 100 years. More importantly, it explains in depth the degree to which modern special interests hold the upper hand over honest and earnest pursuers of truth, through the use of centuries-old propagandistic methods, in spite of all our modern technological achievements.
  
  The book offers no clear prescriptions, nor is it clear to me that it should. It's sufficient to me that the authors explained how scientists arrive at scientific certainty, and that they describe the various ways interested parties have sought to disrupt that certainty among the electorate.
• Can someone at plz explain how a book with TWO REVIEWS (minus mine) tops search results, when the one with several thousand reviews giving it 4+ stars appears beneath a gag gift?
  No there's no political bias built into your search
• So some groups of people and media that you "trust" are right sometimes; but, importantly, could also be WRONG sometimes. And some groups of people and media that you "don't trust" are wrong sometimes, but, importantly could also be RIGHT sometimes. But because you would NEVER listen to those that you "don't trust" -- you might be missing out on valuable information. And because you ONLY listen to those that you "trust" you are susceptible to being misled and misinformed. Therefore you are vulnerable if you take action (or don't take action) on information based simply on who you've chosen to trust (or not to trust) without further evaluation.
  
  Your decision to "trust" or "not to trust" is primarily a function of perception and pre-existing beliefs. This is largely determined by Choice of LANGUAGE deployed by the other; perceived level of AUTHORITY of the other; the number of FOLLOWERS the other has; those having FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE to your mind; CONFORMITY BIAS aka "doing what the crowd is doing" and REPETITION. Generally speaking, more trust is granted to those using the language that you use; more trust is granted to those with higher perceived authority; more trust granted is granted to those with more followers (i.e. social media personalities); more trust is granted to things we are familiar hearing or seeing regularly; and more trust is granted to existing, ingrained thoughts from childhood. This is because we all must trust everyone as a child, and those beliefs continue to have a strong hold on our minds into adulthood, because, biologically you must believe your elders and teachers to survive as a child. So our close relatives have strong influence over our life-long beliefs which generally persist, without further growth and development that is.
  
  Unfortunately, much of the above happens at an EMOTIONAL or SUB-CONSCIOUS level. So, if we put FEELINGS of trust over analytical thinking, we are vulnerable to manipulation on many levels by advertisers and propagandists . Propagandists are specialists at exploiting the knowledge mentioned in the preceding paragraph. This is why the one of the most effective propaganda gurus in the US was Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud. Propagandists are not limited to advertising agencies or foreign adversaries; as I explain later, they are integral to shaping and directing our "free" society.
  
  It is possible to defend against these vulnerabilities, but we must become better at logic and rational thought (more on this below). It takes dedication and effort. I can give specific examples of how propagandists manipulate language to gain trust and ultimately use that trust to deceive, but this is not the place. Think of your own examples. In all cases, the propagandists do not come out and say "hey, I'm here to influence you to do xyz" and sign their name to it. No, they use deceptive TECHNIQUES on you, like a skilled martial artist. This is what we must be conscious of -- that you/we/us are the TARGETS of, sometimes, very advanced deceptive techniques and practices. Their goal, briefly stated, is to shape mass consciousness by doing our thinking for us.
  
  On an elite level, propagandists incite war; trick us into voting for this or that politician; get us to adopt new technologies, and so forth. Regarding war propagandists demonize the "enemy" as "savages", "terrorists", "bad guys", that must be defeated by us "good guys", thus playing on our emotions....Regarding tricking us into voting for this or that candidate propagandists dress the candidate like us, have them talk like us, and appear flawed like us, while overlooking gross incompetence....Regarding adoption of new technologies propagandists prey on our immitativness and fear-of-missing out to get us to accept technologies that don't benefit society on the whole, and in the long run. Specifically related to adoption of new technologies that profoundly change society elite propagandists influence and then focus their media spotlight on a few "innovators"; these innovators, then, with the weight of the media behind them, induce jealousey and thus influence the rest of the herd to take certain actions which, in turn, forces the institutions of government to respond with codified law. Generally speaking, the efficiencies of these new technologies flow to the very few owners of large organizations in terms of greater profitability and control. No average person would choose this fate willingly -- hence the cleverness of the propagandists who trick us into "buying in."
  
  Understanding the above alone is an accomplishment. At the very least, after reading this book, if you begin to listen to groups that you "don't trust" to broaden your perspective, and, as a check to ensure that you are not being misled by those you do "trust", this book might be worthwhile. (Although, there are pitfalls including wasting your time with endless amounts of useless noise if you don't practice good discernment.)
  
  However, my main problem with the book is that it DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE TOOLS TO DISTINGUISH AND EVALUATE ARGUMENTS. Because you now need tools to evaluate all the *new* arguments you'll be hearing (from those groups which you did "not trust" before) and all the *old* arguments which you should be re-thinking. For this, I recommend Anthony Weston' s "A Rulebook for Arguments", and Anthony Weston's "A Workbook for Arguments"
  
  The Weston books will give you the tools to develop your OWN THOUGHTS and actively EVALUATE what you're hearing. This book does a lot of thinking FOR YOU, i.e. it does not present objective facts or arguments; but rather mostly prints stories from second-hand authoritarian sources (Washington Post, NY Times, NASA, etc) which represent the viewpoint of the owners of our technological society, and which the authors generally believe to be "the truth."
  
  Interwoven within the book are certain scientific models with network diagrams that the authors use to explain how "true" or "false" beliefs can spread throughout communities. This is interesting but overly simplified, and again highlights my principal issue with the book -- namely, that, after reading it, you won't have a better toolbox to evaluate arguments for yourself at an INDIVIDUAL LEVEL.
  
  After all, a society is a group of individuals. The more that can critically think and reason rationally for themselves (and not be subject to language manipulation, conformity bias, etc.) the less society will be subject to false beliefs and manipulation, and therefore the better society will be as a whole. Conversely, the opposite is true and society becomes worse off when more people can't reason individually and, instead, take action in herd behavior resulting from trusting propagandists. But the authors fail to recognize this, and instead supplant abstract models which aren't very useful.
  
  Today, the line between the journalist, tech mogul, youtube star, investment guru, celebrity, politician, sports star, etc..AND PROPAGANDIST IS BLURRED. This is assisted by consolidation of mass media to only 5 or 6 corporations. Despite the mere appearance of endless variety of "programming" -- it is all ultimately controlled and approved by a handful of owners at the top.
  
  So a few owners of these corporations colluding together in secret have full-spectrum control -- news, entertainment, politics, sports, health advice, investment advice, etc. Note that the elite owners of society hire the propagandist, and the propagandist coaches and coordinates with the performers, who are the journalist, tech mogul, politician, youtube star, sports star, etc. Think of the propagandists as the conductors directing the Orchestra performers. There are thousands of performers, and you know their names. But you probably don't know the propagandists, and you don't know the owners operating behind the scenes. This is designed like this on purpose. You can't fight against what you can't see -- what is not there. The performers are well paid and/or sworn to secrecy. So there is no incentive to question the orders given down the line. Like a corporate job you do what your boss wants (more or less). This may difficult for many to believe, but I'm sure that almost everyone put in front of you is an actor performing a script coordinated by propagandists...
  
  The individual, and society is facing an uphill battle because technology (in particular cell phones and social media) dumbs us down (for lack of better words). The authors fail to recognize this -- that technology is the primary cause for increased polarization. Technology allows for A PLETHORA of useless information (propaganda or distraction propaganda) to bombard the individual at all times and on many levels.
  
  This over-abundance of information causes the individual to give up on trying to recognize and evaluate REAL ARGUMENTS. Instead, the individual skips the thinking process, and simply FEELS out who to trust.. But because some groups trust some media; and others trust different media; and still others trust different media -- and all of the individuals are not thinking for themselves -- we all become fragmented and polarized into small controllable groups. Communication between groups is strained or not possible because there is no common ground; no "coming to terms" with each other.
  
  We all become "programmed" on different tracks so-to-speak by different media. Those tracks are leading us on diverging paths; and, dangerously, those tracks could be co-opted to create head on collisions; or the tracks could be co-opted to direct society to take actions benefiting the propagandists (and ultimately the wealthy elite owners hiring the propagandists). This could lead to a break-down in society, and technology is accelerating this break-down. Technology makes this co-opting and controlling of herds of people much easier and much quicker than at any time in the past.
  
  Note that seeking out arguments and information from those that we "don't trust" is NOT as simple as listening to CNN if you are on the right (or vice versa for Fox News if you're on the left). This book re-enforces this false left/right paradigm -- that the NY Times and WaPo are reliable and are on one side, and Fox News and Breitbart are not reliable and are on the other side. THE TRUTH IS THAT THEY ARE ALL CONTROLLED. What you are seeing from these outlets (which the authors believe to be the whole of reality) are very narrow ranges of thought representing a few owners of technological society who wish to (and do) control the thinking capacity of the masses. The ubiquity of technological devices creates an omnipotent delivery system feeding mass media propaganda at all times and all places which is inescapable.
  
  For me, seeking out those we "don't trust" means truly listening and giving consideration to the HUMAN BEINGS that we come across in our lives with difference of opinion. It means seeking out information from books, and other PRIMARY SOURCES of information. We should draw our own conclusions and not let our thoughts be influenced by cheap propaganda. Cheap propaganda which replaces the real thing with THEIR version of the thing, thus preventing us from experiencing individually and directly.
  
  When we learn new things, it is helpful to exaggerate to get past mental blocks. For this, ironically, I find that READING FICTION and LITERATURE is helpful. This is because fiction helps stretch our minds in exaggerated psychic reality which we could not otherwise do (reading is superior to television/movies/VR because reading is more of a two-way process; television is more of a one way brainwashing due to the sensory overload that television puts our brains under, allowing trauma and perversions to be imparted into our minds which we can't process at rational levels). Reading makes us more flexible and empathetic when encountering new people and ideas. The Crying of lot 49 by pyncheon, and White Noise by delilo are good ones related to the topic at hand. I often find that fiction is more REAL than what is presented to us as non-fiction on TV news. It's just a matter of swapping the non-fiction LABEL for the fiction LABEL, and vice versa....
  
  Although, seeking out un-propagandized information is challenging for several reasons. This is because most people are very busy, and don't have time to sift through enormous amounts of information. The controlled media dominates everything that most Americans see and hear (even the "alternative media" is controlled behind the scenes.). Most people just repeat what they hear on the television without thinking about it, so finding original thought is rare. Much of the valuable information is simply not available, even on the internet due to shadow banning, censorship, and our pre-programmed mental fences which we are afraid to jump over. If you don't have a pre-existing thought to search for something, and it is not put in front of you, how can you even search for it to find out more? Here is where the propagandists are effective in PREVENTING you from seeking out what could be valuable information by sowing DISTRUST toward groups that the propagandists don't want you coming across (which is for your benefit, of course.).
  
  The same techniques to get you to "trust" are applied in reverse to get you to "not trust." (see second paragraph) For example, you might not give much weight to a single individual voice speaking his or her mind because few others believe it; few others are following along; the language is unsettling to you, the speaker has no authority, and the idea might violate your pre-conceived notions about the thing.. Lastly, the propagandists are very skilled. They have developed and sharpened their techniques for decades and technology has put them on steroids. Often times they are so skilled, you are not even aware that what is being presented to you is propaganda -- they make you think that you have chosen xyz product or you have chosen take xyz action on you own.
  
  But thankfully we now know that we should not use "trust or not trust" as ways of knowing about things and making decisions. We need to separate out our emotions, and all the noise to think deeper to identify and evaluate real arguments. We need to SLOW DOWN. We need not be afraid of new ideas. That is why we should be thankful when we hear human beings offer thoughts that would formerly give you a negative knee-jerk reaction. Understand that that emotional negative knee jerk reaction has probably been programmed in. I often remind myself to "take everything as it is, without prior rules about how it should be"
  
  Generally speaking, schooling conditions us to trust and accept authority until we are 18. In college, I was explicitly taught to only seek out "authoritative" sources for all works cited. Generally speaking, we are not taught to question. We are not taught critical thinking. But this is a much larger topic than what i can write here, but I wanted to mention it because people will often say "schooling is the answer." Clearly it is not helping.
  
  THE answer is LESS TECHNOLOGY or INCREASED REASONING / CRITICAL THINKING at an individual level or some combination of both. But note the interrelationship between the two -- increased technology usually leads to increased dependence, meaning less confidence in one's human nature and capacity to tackle complex problems which is integral to fighting off propagandists and disputing authority. Given the trajectory of society, we are absolutely going in the wrong direction. Since we don't control the media, we can only take individual actions and make those close to me aware of the problem. READ, READ and READ more. Turn off the Television and radio. Get propaganda out of your life.
  
  I give one star for the wonderful quote by Edward Bernays on page 99. That quote, and the rest of the paragraph following that quote is what you really need to know. Take that, and leave the rest.
  
  Finally, I want to point out that this book on modern-day misinformation does NOT mention that fact that the US Congress recently over-turned the smithmundt act. This act previously prevented the use of propaganda against the American Public. It is now LEGAL to use against the american public. I wonder why it is not mentioned by these authors.
• A quick informative read that explains network models using contemporary experiences we've all had in being victims of misinformation and fake news. Not just goofy internet memes - real tragedies involving deaths from disease, pollution, malpractice, corporate obfuscation, political agendas....
  Don't be your FOX-watching uncle. Read this book.
• If you are interested in all the different ways in which information, including false rumors and bogus theories, can spread in a society, you should read this book. It has lots of really interesting examples to illustrate the underlying theory, but also explains why information can spread that way. The authors are leading researchers who use computer modeling to simulate the spread of information, and they use the computer models to analyze real-life cases. This book is a pretty breezy read, but if you want more of the details, you can also go to their websites and read their research papers.
• Reading this confirms what I’ve suspected humans are hopeless animals hell bent on self-destruction and ill equipped to prevent manipulation by sociopaths in industry. We’re going down for sure.