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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Down The Misinformation Rabbit Hole: Falling Or Jumping In?, Alex Siebenmorgen
Down The Misinformation Rabbit Hole: Falling Or Jumping In?, Alex Siebenmorgen
Philosophy Undergraduate Honors Theses
The primary goal of this paper is to determine in which cases, if any, an individual is culpable for adopting, expressing, or acting upon a misinformed belief. To determine this, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms by which individuals select beliefs and the biases or mistakes that lead them to adopt false ones. I will compare and evaluate the views of Neil Levy and Dan Kahan, who offer opposing viewpoints on the source of misinformed beliefs. I will also consider the attempts to model belief adoption and expression through signaling theory. Finally, I will propose a particular standard to …
Cognitive Tribalism: A Social Doxastic Model, Robert Ragsdale
Cognitive Tribalism: A Social Doxastic Model, Robert Ragsdale
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
How are facemasks – seemingly innocuous artifacts of the biomedical industry – currently embroiled in cultural wars? What motivates popular rejections of scientific consensus and messaging about the reality and consequences of anthropogenic climate change or the COVID-19 virus and vaccine? The puzzle is that (a) despite its being in everyone’s rational interests to have a well-informed public and body politic about collective threats, and (b) despite the public availability of accurate and reliable information, scientific messaging and public discourse surrounding climate change, COVID-19, and vaccine hesitancy, nevertheless, tend to be hijacked by political interest. Yet, if belief is essentially …