You Are Not So Smart 307 - Concordance Over Truth Bias
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Feb 17, 2025 Samuel Woolley, a disinformation expert, joins Katie Joseff, a misinformation researcher, and Michael Schwalbe, a postdoctoral fellow studying polarization. They discuss the newly identified cognitive distortion called concordance over truth bias, which leads people to favor information that aligns with their beliefs. The conversation dives into how psychological factors influence susceptibility to fake news, the challenges of identifying biases, and the implications of misinformation in a polarized society. Their insights urge a call for critical thinking and intellectual humility.
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Disconfirmation Bias
- Disconfirmation bias leads us to scrutinize contradicting information excessively.
- We readily accept information aligning with our beliefs, often without question.
Arousal and Sharing
- Arousal, triggered by the autonomic nervous system, is a key motivator for sharing articles.
- Headlines that evoke humor, fear, or anger, especially politically charged ones, are more likely to be shared without fact-checking.
Fake Headlines Study
- A study used fake headlines, like "Trump says, 'I don't like poor people,'" to test sharing behavior.
- Participants readily believed and shared headlines aligning with their political views, regardless of truth.
