From fake news to polarization according to neurosciences

cross-posted from: https://feddit.it/post/26822065

[The original version is in Italian. The following is an automated translation - by Libretranslate - of the article's conclusion with minimal edits.]

The current strategies against fake news don't appear to be entirely effective because they are based on a wrong ontological model that presupposes the rational and not predictive user ... It is clear that fake news proliferate anyway and it is not just a technological problem. An overall analysis, in fact, shows that fake news is conveyed by all media and spreads also in non-digital environments. This leads to the conclusion that the strategy is inadequate.

To structure a useful strategy, we need to understand not only the functioning of technology, but of the cognitive environment in which it operates (both TV, social, etc.), but also how the human brain works. It is therefore necessary to understand that we must not combat content but to intervene in models.

In short, it is not about focusing on facts but on predictions, it is not about content but about identity, not about logic but about minimizing error. Aggressive denials and direct fact-checking are not helpful, nor are derision or attempts to reason with people. All this causes an error of prediction that strengthens beliefs (backfire effect, although the backfire effect is not universal but emerges forcefully in high salinity identity contexts).

Instead, it is necessary to create predictive bridges compatible with the existing model, to act on micro-contradictions, to change contexts before beliefs, to modify the way information is anticipated.

People do not defend fake news, they defend the model of themselves and the world that this news confirms. If you attack the news, you attack the model, and the brain defends itself by beginning to stiffen. To change your mind, you need to change the pattern, not the fact.

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