The Political Psychology of Misinformation
The Political Science Department and the Center for the Study of Political Psychology will be sponsoring the Political Psychology Fall Symposium: The Political Psychology of Misinformation. It will be held on December 9, from 2-4pm in room 1-149 in the Carlson School of Management.
From persistent doubts about President Obama's birthplace to the tenacity of 9/11 conspiracy theories, contemporary political discourse seems to be marked by a proliferation of demonstrably false beliefs that nevertheless resist disconfirmation in certain quarters. Research has increasingly drawn attention to the underlying psychology of these and other forms of political "misinformation," implicating factors such as the desire to adopt beliefs that are consistent with prior cultural values, information processing biases that support this desire, and cues provided by trusted political leaders. In this symposium, Dan Kahan (Yale Law), Brendan Nyhan (Dartmouth University) and Dhavan Shah (University of Wisconsin-Madison) will discuss this phenomenon from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Paul Goren (University of Minnesota) will serve as a moderator for this panel discussion.