vooke
Active Member
Came across this article on an academic paper on the Majority Illusion which is basically overestimation of the popularity of a particular behavior or idea
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538866/the-social-network-illusion-that-tricks-your-mind/
Overestimating popularity of an idea or behavior makes it easily believable or highly tempting to try it out respectively
And finally,explaining some well known phenomena;
I'm looking at the paper from a debunking perspective, especially 9/11. If one was to delve into the 9/11 CTs, the first impression is that majority or a significant number of Americans believe in them. Of course this is not necessarily so.
The other point of note and that has been raised elsewhere here is that the first key to walking away from CTs is to look outside your sources. For every CT, there is an active source of the beliefs either in shaping and or propagating them. These are the 'active nodes'.
And closely related to the above point is that our own beliefs or behavior is significantly affected by others'
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538866/the-social-network-illusion-that-tricks-your-mind/
The other point of note and that has been raised elsewhere here is that the first key to walking away from CTs is to look outside your sources. For every CT, there is an active source of the beliefs either in shaping and or propagating them. These are the 'active nodes'.
And closely related to the above point is that our own beliefs or behavior is significantly affected by others'
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