What are conspiracy theories and what should we do about them?
PBS Departmental Seminar Series
What are conspiracy theories and what should we do about them?
Research quantifying the effectiveness and parameters of misinformation interventions has flourished in recent years. Within this work, conspiracy beliefs have proven a particularly complex and concerning phenomenon to deal with in modern democracies. To address these issues, Dr Mikey Biddlestone will first discuss recent work which has developed a new Conspiracist Worldview Scale (CWS). The CWS allows researchers to capture an as-yet under researched component of conspiracist worldviews: the self-concept as a free-thinking truth-seeker. Next, he will will discuss work he has carried out on the distinct implications of conspiracy beliefs in certain contexts (eg, anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs), focusing on their differential implications depending on the motivational context. Finally, Dr Biddlestone will discuss recent work he has conducted investigating different ways of extending prebunking interventions into new contexts, addressing cognitive factors and barriers to their administration such as entrenched conspiracist worldviews.
Dr Mikey Biddlestone is an early career researcher focusing on predictors, consequences, and interventions to fight misinformation and conspiracy beliefs. After completing his PhD on the social identity predictors of conspiracy beliefs with Professors Aleksandra Cichocka and Karen Douglas at the University of Kent, he went on to complete a postdoc with Professor Sander van der Linden at the Cambridge Social Decision Making Lab. There, Mikey helped develop and test prebunking interventions to reduce misinformation susceptibility, branching out into helping startups and NGOs achieve the same objectives. Now, Mikey works as a postdoc on the University of Kent CONSPIRACY_FX team, developing experimental, longitudinal, and psychometric work on the consequences of conspiracy beliefs.
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