Simply telling people theyre wrong about things is not enough to change their beliefs, as this interesting article explains. Beliefs can be just as much if not more about identity as they are about information. It is important to bust myths, but more important still is to cram the media (particularly social) with engaging resources that encourage people to expose themselves willingly to the elementary tools and tenets of critical thinking; to give the basic nuts and bolts of science and reason constant public exhibition so that people cant help but begin to register them through a sort of informational osmosis. Though it is true that pseudoscience spread by social media works in constant counteraction against these efforts, what unifies pseudoscience is its inconsistency. Its lack of solid principles, and thus its inherent contradictions, foster cognitive dissonance and as such the cultural identity that it represents is unstable. Science, on the other hand, seeks parsimony, and as such is conducive to building a coherent and empowering sense of identity. In other words, impact-per-click is likely to be greater for science shares than it is for pseudoscience shares.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 09:21:51 +0000
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