TY  - BOOK
AU  - O'Connor,Cailin
AU  - Weatherall,James Owen
TI  - The misinformation age: how false beliefs spread 
SN  - 9780300251852
AV  - BF323.E7 O'999m 2019
U1  - 153.74 23
PY  - 2019///]
CY  - New Haven, London
PB  - Yale University Press
KW  - Errors
KW  - Social aspects
KW  - Psychological aspects
KW  - Cognitive psychology
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index; Introduction. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary -- ONE. What Is Truth? -- TWO. Polarization and Conformity -- THREE. The Evangelization of Peoples -- FOUR. The Social Network
N2  - 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 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 belief. 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 an age riven by "fake news," "alternative facts," and disputes over the validity of everything from climate change to the size of inauguration crowds, the authors 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
ER  -