How misinformation spreads


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In an age riven by factual disputes over everything from climate change to vaccine efficacy to the size of inauguration crowds, how best should we understand the spread and persistence of polarised beliefs? Why do demonstrably false beliefs persist and spread without apparent consequence for the people who hold them?
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?
In their 2019 book The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread, co-authors Cailin O'Connor and James Weatherall argue that social factors, not individual psychology, are what’s essential to understanding the persistence of false belief, and that we must know how those social forces work in order to fight misinformation effectively. They bring much-needed perspectives from the philosophy of science to what is an increasingly dangerous societal malaise.
Cailin O'Connor will be joining London Futurists in this live webinar to share key highlights from this book, and to bring some of its recommendations up-to-date in the light of subsequent events and research.
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This event will be hosted on Zoom. To register, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kLsl_VphSAyIkD2qsbmU0w
The Zoom registration fee (UKP £3.00) helps cover London Futurists running costs. (The Zoom registration page opens a PayPal interface, but there is NO requirement for attendees to use a PayPal account.)
The webinar can also be viewed, without charge, on the London Futurists YouTube channel, but without the option to participate in the live Q&A.
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Cailin O'Connor is a philosopher of biology and behavioral sciences, philosopher of science, and evolutionary game theorist. She is a Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and a member of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science at UC Irvine. She currently co-administers the NSF grant “Consensus, Democracy, and the Public Understanding of Science” with philosopher of physics James Owen Weatherall.
In addition to co-authoring The Misinformation Age, Cailin is the author of the 2019 monograph The Origins of Unfairness and the 2020 book Games in the Philosophy of Biology.
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The webinar will start broadcasting at 4pm UK time on Sat 4th Feb. To find this time in other timezones, use https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20230204T160000&p1=136.
Please log into Zoom up to 10 minutes ahead of the start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast.
As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.
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To register for this event, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kLsl_VphSAyIkD2qsbmU0w

How misinformation spreads