#515 Sacha Altay: Social Media, Fake News, Science Communication, and the COVID-19 Pandemic
RECORDED ON MAY 17th 2021.
Sacha Altay is doing his PhD in cognitive science at the Institut Jean Nicod of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Fascinated by apparently irrational beliefs and behaviors, he works with Hugo Mercier on the role of epistemic reputation in communication and the cognitive mechanisms underlying information transmission and evaluation.
In this episode, we talk about fake news, and scientific misinformation. We start with fake news, and discuss how widespread it really is, and the sort of cultural and social factors behind fake news sharing. We talk about misinformation on misinformation, and moral panics about fake news. We also talk about scientific misinformation during the COVID pandemic, and how governments and health authorities could have done a better job of communicating COVID-related information. We finish with a discussion of what would make for more effective science communication.
Time Links:
Intro
Fake news
Why do people share fake news?
Social media is for fostering social relations
Does fake news change people’s behavior?
Misinformation on misinformation
Scientific misinformation
Misinformation in the COVID pandemic, and vaccine hesitancy
Better ways of doing science communication
Follow Sacha’s work!
Follow Sacha’s work:
Website: https://bit.ly/2P0PYSv
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3ok96IJ
Twitter handle: @Sacha_Altay