Science

6908 readers

69 users here now

General discussions about "science" itself

Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:

https://lemmy.ml/c/science

https://beehaw.org/c/science

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

Sal@mander.xyz

fossilesque@mander.xyz

192

Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false (arstechnica.com)

submitted 5 months ago by Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/science@mander.xyz

40 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.

[…]

Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

anecdotally all my mentally ill or social inferior friends/partners over the years... have all become full blow misinformation/delusional conspiracy theory types of people. and are no longer my friends.

their desperation in my reading is that they simple refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and rectify their behaviors... so it must be some vast conspiracy that causes them to overspending, make poor lifestyle choices, and be unable to keep a job...

and to them anyone who is mildly put together is some privledged jerk with zero empathy for them and their 'totally unique' situation...

i also pathologically avoid these people now, i was a lot more tolerate of them 10 years ago. But all they want to do is drag you down into their delusions and misery, they do not want to improve their own lives, let alone ours. They will also take your successes as personal attacks on themselves...

[–] mistermodal@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

In order to face this problem we need to move beyond individualistic causes like "people are right wing because they are pathetic incels". I got the same results from trying to reason with people. These are serious psyops programs, and we need to remember that most people don't listen to each other but whatever form of "television" makes them feel good. People can respond to real hardship by becoming selfish and horrible, or they can respond to having everything and never facing their own flaws by seeking out sadism for thrills, there are so many ways people's minds can spoil. The structure of the belief system that pulls them in is what needs to be confronted, not their individual pathologies.