Understanding Conspiracy Online: Social Media and the Spread of Suspicious Thinking

Abstract

Even though the internet has dramatically changed the quantity and accessibility of information, there are large -and sometimes powerful -elements of society that are politically and emotionally invested in beliefs that are not supported by current evidence. These are generally referred to as "conspiracy theories." Although this may be a pejorative term, to date there is no suitable neutral term; the term conspiracy theory is used across multiple fields, ranging from computer science to cognitive science. In this paper I explore how conspiracy theories form, and how the internet has changed -or more frequently, not changed -the spread of conspiracy theories, in particular through social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter. Conspiracy theories spread much like scientific knowledge online, revealing that they are in some essences very similar constructs. The growth of user-specific filters and social exclusion are likely factors in the spread of these theories. Though some have argued to treat conspiracy theories as dangerous or harmful speech, such as in the case of vaccination refusal, I argue against limiting speech and instead suggest information literacy and a focus on analytical thinking as remedies. I also argue against further stigmatization of conspiracy theorists, as this will likely contribute to further radicalization.

Fake news, big data e o risco à democracia:

“…Assim as bibliotecas e os museus possuem papel ativo no contexto das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (Froehlich, 2017). Mortimer (2017) se utiliza da expressão 'Teorias da Conspiração' que é divulgada pelas mídias sociais em forma de conhecimento científico.…”

Changes in Late Adolescents' Trust Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Sex was half effect coded (female = −0.5 and male = 0.5). We used full information maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors in Mplus Version 8 (Allison, 2003;Enders & Bandalos, 2001;Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2017, which deals with missing data even in studies like ours with large proportions of missing data (Johnson & Young, 2011). Thus, we were able to keep the participants who participated only at one or two study waves in our analyses.…”

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“…This study also noted that only a third of the users posting on this topic at the time expressed endorsement and belief in the theory, while the remainder mocked it or shared posts humorously, inadvertently drawing more attention to the topic. Importantly, users may also be presented with this kind of (and adjacent) content due to filter bubbles, the combination of personal preferences and learning algorithms that display content in the news feed of social media (Mortimer, 2017). Users of social media may, therefore, be exposed to information that aligns with their pre-established beliefs, fostering an echo chamber (Messing & Westwood, 2014).…”