The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread

Written by Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall

Narrated by Chelsea Stephens

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



Why should we care about having true beliefs? And why do demonstrably false beliefs persist and spread despite 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 belief. 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?



In an age riven by "fake news," "alternative facts," and disputes over the validity of everything from climate change to the size of inauguration crowds, the authors argue that social factors, not individual psychology, are what's essential to understanding the persistence of false belief and that we must know how those social forces work in order to fight misinformation effectively.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Sep 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781630157111

Reviews for The Misinformation Age

[Jordan La Borde · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although at times the book moves beyond impartiality and its intellectual oligarchic proposals in the final pages are lacking even in skeletal structure, this book does a good job of laying out mechanisms that make skepticism, myths, and conspiracy theories increasingly prevalent.

[Jakov No · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fine book. Read, if possible, rather than listen due to a more organized overview od the models presented inside (rather than rewind a lot) But the audio verson is a good and needed listen as well.

[fionaanne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More academic than I would have liked.

[alco261 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Misinformation Age is a very readable philosophical, historical, and mathematical analysis of the spread of misinformation and, of course, its mirror image, information. The authors employed the Bala-Goyal model, a Bayesian based model which examines the way individuals learn about something by both observing and listening to their compatriots, to examine scientists and their networks of interaction.

This may sound like an excessively dry read – it isn’t. The mathematics is reduced to text and diagrams of communication networks. The diagrams illustrate the ways the network changes as the individual’s knowledge (true and false), and interactions with other members of the network changes. They also show what happens when the network is impacted by forces such as propagandists, changes in individual authority, etc.

The authors use examples from history, both general and scientific, to illustrate these various scenarios of network change in practice. The examples are far ranging and include such things as the Hearst newspaper push for war with Spain over the sinking of the battleship Maine, the ostracizing of Semmelweis for suggesting “gentlemen have dirty hands”, the industrial obfuscation concerning CFC’s impact on the ozone layer, the Tobacco Institute’s campaign against the connection between smoking and lung cancer, and much more.

The book text is 186 pages. There are 26 pages of chapter notes, a 35-page bibliography, and an extensive index. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking a better understanding of the whys and wherefores of all forms of communications that are part of today’s world and the roles they play in everyday decisions at all levels of society.