Lies kill: the perils of misinformation -- Information and misinformation: how they work -- Believing what you want: motivated reasoning, emotion, and identity -- Plagues: COVID-19 and medical misinformation -- Storms: climate change and scientific misinformation -- Plots: conspiracy theories and political misinformation -- Evils: inequality and social misinformation -- Misinformation self-defense: a manual illustrated by the Russia-Ukraine War -- Reality rescued: beyond post-truth.
Summary:
"Misinformation is threatening medicine, science, politics, social justice, and international relations, in problems such as vaccine hesitancy, climate change denial, conspiracy theories, claims of racial inferiority, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Barack Obama has described disinformation--defined as misinformation that is spread deliberately by people who know it is false--as the single biggest threat to democracy. Dealing with misinformation requires explanation of how information is generated and spread, and how it breaks down but can be mended. This book offers a deep account of information and misinformation that provides concrete advice on how improved thinking and communication can benefit individuals and societies. Paul Thagard presents a theory of information as deriving from four processes: acquisition, inference, memory, and spread, or AIMS. Each of these is spelled out in terms of concrete cognitive and behavioral mechanisms that generate real information when done well, but which can easily break down and produce misinformation. Fortunately, misinformation can be transformed into real information using the same mechanisms. The book applies the AIMS theory of information and misinformation to five different domains: COVID-19, climate change, conspiracy theories, inequality, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine"-- Provided by the publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.