A line of blocks that read ’fake fact’
A line of blocks that read 'fake fact' Dr Christos Bechlivanidis (Psychology & Language Sciences), with colleagues, writes in The Conversation that presumptions that misinformation leads to bad behaviour isn't empirically supported, and the real relationship between beliefs and behaviour is more complex. "So far as the influence of the newspaper upon the mind and morals of the people is concerned, there can be no rational doubt that the telegraph has caused vast injury." So said the The New York Times in 1858, when the transatlantic cable linking North America and Europe was completed. The telegraph was assumed to be a means of spreading propaganda that would destabilise society. It was also seen as a vehicle used to disconnect people from the real world by introducing false ideas in their heads. Today, we might dismiss this as an irrational fear - a moral panic. Go back further and there are examples of questionable information recorded and disseminated via information technologies available to the ancients - in clay, stone and papyrus. Fast forward to today, and the exact same concern exists around social media.
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