The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread

by Cailin O'Connor, James Owen Weatherall

Overview

The social dynamics of “alternative facts”: why what you believe depends on who you know

“Empowering and thoroughly researched, this book offers useful contemporary analysis and possible solutions to one of the greatest threats to democracy.”—Kirkus Reviews

Editors’ choice, New York Times Book Review   •  Recommended reading, Scientific American

Why should we care about having true beliefs? And why do demonstrably false beliefs persist and spread despite bad, even fatal, 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 beliefs. 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?

The Misinformation Age, written for a political era riven by “fake news,” “alternative facts,” and disputes over the validity of everything from climate change to the size of inauguration crowds, shows convincingly that what you believe depends on who you know. If social forces explain the persistence of false belief, we must understand how those forces work in order to fight misinformation effectively.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300251852
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	02/18/2020
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	212,618
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Cailin O’Connor is associate professor of logic and philosophy of science at the University of California, Irvine. James Owen Weatherall is professor of logic and philosophy of science at the University of California, Irvine, and author of the New York Times best-seller The Physics of Wall Street. Both are members of the Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Science. They reside in California.

Table of Contents

Note to Reader ix

Introduction The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary 1

1 What Is Truth? 19

2 Polarization and Conformity 46

3 The Evangelization of Peoples 93

4 The Social Network 147

Notes 187

Bibliography 215

Acknowedgments 251

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

11/12/2018
This guide to separating society’s factual wheat from its fraudulent chaff is useful more for the serious information-dissemination problems the authors explain than for any practical solutions they propose. The ostensible thesis of the authors, philosophers of science O’Connor and Weatherall (The Physics of Wall Street), is that people’s beliefs depend on their social networks, which are increasingly susceptible to 21st-century modes of propaganda, especially online. Half the book focuses on examples of how false beliefs infiltrate mainstream scientific discourse. The authors explain at length how scientists gather and circulate information, and how these legitimate empirical efforts can cross treacherous paths with so-called industrial-strength propaganda. The book’s most appealing material is tangential to its main purpose: entertaining historical accounts of instances when, casting off the shackles of faulty conventional wisdom, scientists achieved factual breakthroughs in treating or preventing such ailments as puerperal fever, Lyme disease, stomach ulcers, and mercury poisoning. But the only real insight offered into the current political polarization in the U.S. is that “people tend to search out and pay attention to only the evidence that accords with their current beliefs.” While the authors call for further internet regulation and more journalistic self-policing, they will leave readers unconvinced that widespread motivation exists for such reform. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Methodical and earnest.”—Jennifer Szalai, New York Times

“The Misinformation Age covers big subjects like truth and the fate of the species” —Jennifer Szalai, International New York Times

“Empowering and thoroughly researched, this book offers useful contemporary analysis and possible solutions to one of the greatest threats to democracy.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[The authors] deftly apply sociological models to examine how misinformation spreads among people and how scientific results get misrepresented in the public sphere. They offer scientific case studies—the discovery that CFCs were responsible for the ozone hole in the 1980s, for example—to explore the question of what constitutes truth and to consider the role that information plays in a healthy democracy.”—Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American

“A notable new volume . . .The Misinformation Age explains systematically how facts are determined and changed—whether it is concerning the effects of vaccination on children or the Russian attack on the integrity of the electoral process.”—Roger I. Abrams, New York Journal of Books

"It’s a good read on a very important subject, definitely worth exploring."—Hugh Taylor, Journal of Cyberpolicy

"Engaging and sophisticated. . . . The Misinformation Age captures the threat posed by misinformation in the current political moment."—Steven Slomin, American Scientist

“An important book for an era of weaponized information.”—George Musser, contributing editor, Scientific American and Nautilus

"Fake news has revealed a dark side of networks: an almost unstoppable ability to spread false and misleading information, changing people's perception of reality and shaking the political establishment. The Misinformation Age is a timely, engaging narrative of how this happened and how the mix of fake news and networks is changing our world."—Albert-László Barabási, author of Linked: The New Science of Networks

"In this perilous moment—when knowledge is powerfully eroded by new and effective campaigns of misinformation—O’Connor and Weatherall offer a critically important philosophical defense of evidence, facts, and above all, the truth."—Allan M. Brandt, Harvard University

“The Misinformation Age is the best book I've read on why the fake-news epidemic is afflicting us and what we can do about it. It offers in-depth reporting and provocative analysis delivered in lively prose, a rare combination.”—John Horgan, director of the Center for Science Writings, Stevens Institute of Technology

From the Publisher

"In this perilous moment—when knowledge is powerfully eroded by new and effective campaigns of misinformation—O’Connor and Weatherall offer a critically important philosophical defense of evidence, facts, and above all, the truth."—Allan M. Brandt, Harvard University
 

Allan M. Brandt

"An important book for an era of weaponized information. False beliefs aren’t due to stupidity or cognitive biases, but to the trust that all of us necessarily place in others. It has to be tackled at the systems level, and the authors offer some provocative ideas for how."—George Musser, contributing editor for Scientific American and Nautilus magazines
 

George Musser

2018-11-26

"We live in an age of misinformation—an age of spin, marketing, and downright lies." So write two professors of logic and the philosophy of science in this sober study of the "important mechanisms by which false beliefs spread."

Today, with the broad reach of the internet and social media, both individuals and institutions are vulnerable to fake news and manipulation, with far-reaching consequences. As O'Connor and Weatherall (The Physics of Wall Street, 2013), who teach at the University of California, Irvine, contend, if "you make decisions on the basis of [false] beliefs, then those decisions are unlikely to yield the outcomes you expect and desire." In this fresh addition to the groaning shelf of recent books about fake news, the authors thoroughly examine nearly every facet of this phenomenon, which may seem new but is not. Fleshing out examples running from the 1898 explosion of the USS Maine through the Pizzagate nonsense in 2016, the authors comb through the historic peaks of fake news and propaganda, demonstrating its potential to not only swing elections, but also inspire killing sprees and even ignite wars. Giving ample space to the ongoing problem of misleading scientific reportage, the book explores big tobacco's cancer links in the 1950s through today's purposefully ignorant discussion of climate change. While social media often blames algorithms for the viral spread of false information, the authors write, "organizations like Facebook, Twitter, and Google are responsible for the rampant spread of fake news on their platforms for the past several years—and, ultimately, for the political, economic, and human costs that resulted." The most significant question? "Can democracy survive in an age of fake news?" For starters, the authors demand more editorial discretion, fact checking, and investment. "The challenge," they write, "is to find new mechanisms for aggregating values that capture the ideals of democracy, without holding us all hostage to ignorance and manipulation."

Empowering and thoroughly researched, this book offers useful contemporary analysis and possible solutions to one of the greatest threats to democracy.

Kirkus Reviews