Influence and seepage: An evidence-resistant minority can affect public opinion and scientific belief formation

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Pilditch, Toby D.; Madsen, Jens Koed; Орескес, Наоми; Risbey, James S.

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2019.01.011

Cited by 39 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 79 publications

(95 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Deng et al [ 18 ] found that a positive messages could influence the opinion dynamics in the early stages of opinion formation, and then decided the opinion formation like a butterfly effect. Lewandowsky et al [ 19 ] explored when a minority of agents that was resistant to the evidence was introduced for scientific discussion, the simulated scientific community still acquired firm knowledge, but consensus formation was delayed. Zhao et al [ 20 ] analyzed the impacts of the opinion leaders and the environmental noises on the final opinions of the opinion followers.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Public Opinion Reversal Process with the Considerations of External Intervention Information and Individual Internal Characteristics

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the rapid development of “we media” technology, external information about the same sudden hot social event is often involved repetitiously, leading to frequent public opinion reversal. However, the phenomenon of public opinion reversal process usually has a long-lasting duration and spreads wide, making the event itself attract the widespread attention of ordinary people. Focusing on the public opinion reversal process of sudden social hot topic (a popular and widely discussed issue), this paper firstly identifies the internal and external factors that affect the reversal, namely individual internal characteristics and external intervention information. Secondly, information intensity and the amount of information perceived by individuals are introduced to describe the impact of external intervention information on the public opinion reversal. Thirdly, the parameters of individual attention and conservation are used to describe the process of individual’s selection of external information, so as to reveal the influence of the internal characteristics on public opinion reversal, and then build a public opinion reversal model. Fourthly, the effects of information intensity and individual attention, as well as individual conservation on the process of public opinion reversal are analyzed by simulation experiment. Simulation results show that: (1) the intensity of external intervention information affects the direction and degree of public opinion reversal; (2) when individual conservation is strong or individual attention is weak, even if external intervention information is strong, there will still be no obvious reversal of public opinion. Subsequently, the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed model are verified by a real case. Finally, some recommendations and policy implications are also given.

show abstract

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Public Opinion Reversal Process with the Considerations of External Intervention Information and Individual Internal Characteristics

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another line of interventions may be focused on echo-chambers and partisan media, as they foster social conceptions associated with pseudoscience, such as group bias and, consequently, authoritarian rejection of hostile information. Echo-chambers are often exploited by evidence-resistance groups that effectively promote denialism and pseudo-theories (Lewandowsky, Pilditch, Madsen, Oreskes, & Risbey, 2019). In general terms, it is important to encourage people to counter false-consensus effect and harmful intellectual submission by making their voices heard.…”

Section: Implications For Social Interventions and Science Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior research has shown perceived social consensus as a source of motivation for fact assessment. So, individuals tend to accept or reject information depending on whether or not it fits with ingroup values and beliefs (Kahan et al, 2011; Lewandowsky et al, 2019), as a way to achieve short-term social benefits (Khanna and Sood, 2017). Accordingly, some cases of denialism show a striking ‘consensus-gap’ between experts and the public opinion (Lewandowsky et al, 2013) and perceived group consensus mediates science acceptance on pseudoscientific issues (Lewandowsky et al, 2019; Van der Linden et al, 2015).…”

Section: An Authoritarian Interpretation Of Society: the Role Of Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do as the Romans do: On the authoritarian roots of pseudoscience

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent research highlights the implications of group dynamics in the acceptance and promotion of misconceptions, particularly in relation to the identity-protective attitudes that boost polarisation over scientific information. In this study, we successfully test a mediational model between right-wing authoritarianism and pseudoscientific beliefs. First, we carry out a comprehensive literature review on the socio-political background of pseudoscientific beliefs. Second, we conduct two studies ( n = 1189 and n = 1097) to confirm our working hypotheses: H1 – intercorrelation between pseudoscientific beliefs, authoritarianism and three axioms (reward for application, religiosity and fate control); H2 – authoritarianism and social axioms fully explain rightists’ proneness to pseudoscience; and H3 – the association between pseudoscience and authoritarianism is partially mediated by social axioms. Finally, we discuss our results in relation to their external validity regarding paranormal and conspiracy beliefs, as well as to their implications for group polarisation and science communication.

show abstract

“…In terms of dynamic evolution: Lewandowsky et al [10] simulated the actual evolution of public opinion in the face of political conflict and scientific discovery by constructing a proxy model, and found that even if the scientific community had presented more compelling evidence on climate change, under the influence of the politicians' views, the public remained ambivalent about the reality of climate change. Bode and Vraga [11] studied the situation in which individuals with different conformities were corrected after receiving false information.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of the Public Opinion Polarization Process with the Considerations of Individual Heterogeneity and Dynamic Conformity

Chen

Yang

et al. 2019

Mathematics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nowadays, hot issues are likely become bipolar or multipolar after heated discussion on the Internet. This article is focused on the study of the polarization phenomenon and establishes a public opinion polarization model with the considerations of individual heterogeneity and dynamic conformity. At first, this article introduces the dynamic changing function of an individual’s conformity tendency to other’s attitudes in the interaction process. It further defines the influential weight between different interactive individuals, and expands the interactive individual from complete homogeneity to initial attitude heterogeneity, and finally, conformity heterogeneity. Then, through simulation experiments, we find that the degree of changing in individual attitude is limited. That is, it is difficult for the individuals who have one directional attitude at the initial time to change into another opposite attitude through interaction. In addition, individuals with low conformity within a certain threshold are more likely to form polarization. Finally, the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed model are verified by the typical case “Mimeng Event”.

show abstract

Influence and seepage: An evidence-resistant minority can affect public opinion and scientific belief formation

Cited by 39 publications

References 79 publications

Modeling Public Opinion Reversal Process with the Considerations of External Intervention Information and Individual Internal Characteristics

Modeling Public Opinion Reversal Process with the Considerations of External Intervention Information and Individual Internal Characteristics

Do as the Romans do: On the authoritarian roots of pseudoscience

Modeling of the Public Opinion Polarization Process with the Considerations of Individual Heterogeneity and Dynamic Conformity

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About