On Wednesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the surprise Democratic primary winner from New York’s 14th Congressional District, said, “[T]he Democratic Party is a big tent and there are so many ways to be a Democrat.” In this, she is correct. Democrats have been, sometimes uncomfortably, forced to find connections and common cause […] Read more »
Red Hens, babies & the great unraveling
At the risk of alienating friends, I want to delve, not too deeply, into the now infamous incident at the Red Hen of Lexington, Va. (not to be confused with the unrelated Red Hen of Washington, D.C.). … Three Chicago-area psychologists recently proved experimentally what this incident demonstrates anecdotally: both […] Read more »
Misinformation and biases infect social media, both intentionally and accidentally
People who share potential misinformation on Twitter (in purple) rarely get to see corrections or fact-checking (in orange). Shao et al., CC BY-ND Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, University of South Florida and Filippo Menczer, Indiana University Social media are among the primary sources of news in the U.S. and across the […] Read more »
What makes people distrust science? Surprisingly, not politics
Today, there is a crisis of trust in science. Many people – including politicians and, yes, even presidents – publicly express doubts about the validity of scientific findings. Meanwhile, scientific institutions and journals express their concerns about the public’s increasing distrust in science. How is it possible that science, the […] Read more »
Mad as Hell: How Anger Diminishes Trust in Government
From President Donald Trump’s tweets, to congressional gridlock, investigations about Russia’s potential meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and, yes, a comedian’s standup routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the political scene is inherently anger-inducing. Indeed, in an era defined by intense partisan divisions where the logic of negative […] Read more »
Why Trump Supporters Don’t Mind His Lies
In his first 400 days in office, President Trump made more than 2,400 false or misleading claims, according to The Washington Post. … Wittingly or not, Mr. Trump’s representatives have used a subtle psychological strategy to defend his falsehoods: They encourage people to reflect on how the falsehoods could have […] Read more »