Deeper Questions Episode 8: "How do we combat misinformation?"

Episode 8: "How do we combat misinformation?"

How do we know what we know? And how can we be sure? No one wants to be gullible, and most of us pride ourselves for being independently minded. And yet... we’re way more dependent on our social groups than we probably realise, which makes us susceptible to believing falsehoods. Today we’re going to jump into the wild world of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories.

John Cook is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne. He researches how to use critical thinking to counter misinformation. He created the Cranky Uncle game, combining critical thinking, cartoons, and gamification to build resilience against misinformation. He currently works with organizations like Facebook, NASA, the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and UNICEF to develop evidence-based responses to misinformation. He also founded skepticalscience.com has coauthored/contributed to a vast amount of books including The Debunking Handbook and Conspiracy Theory Handbook.

Other References:

• Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them by Joseph Uscinski
• Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America by Will Sommer
• “Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory” by Taylor Lorenz in the New York Times (Dec 9, 2021)
• John’s paper quantifying the 97% scientific consensus on climate change
• John Oliver segment referencing John's paper (language warning)
• ThinkingIsPower.com
• Hebrews verse John mentioned was Hebrews 11:1 “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Got questions?

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Feel free to suggest potential guests or topics as well. No doubt there are heaps of important ideas and stories out there worth hearing!

Deeper Questions is produced by Production Farm Studios