Steve Rathje

Dr. Steve Rathje, a social psychology researcher and incoming assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon, dives deep into the psychology behind virality and social media. He discusses how posts targeting political outgroups often go viral, revealing the algorithmic bias towards outrage and conflict. Rathje shares promising research on reducing animosity through unfollowing hyper-partisan influencers. He also explores the implications of sycophantic AI chatbots and how they can inadvertently reinforce belief extremity.