Social and psychological forces are combining to make the sharing and believing of misinformation an endemic problem with no easy solution.
There’s a decent chance you’ve had at least one of these rumors, all false, relayed to you as fact recently: that President Biden plans to force Americans to eat less meat; that Virginia is eliminating advanced math in schools to advance racial equality; and that border officials are mass-purchasing copies of Vice President Kamala Harris’s book to hand out to refugee children.All were amplified by partisan actors. But you’re just as likely, if not more so, to have heard it relayed from someone you know. And you may have noticed that these cycles of falsehood-fueled outrage keep recurring.We are in an era of endemic misinformation — and outright disinformation. Plenty of bad actors are helping the trend along. But the real drivers, some experts believe, are social and psychological forces that make people prone to sharing and believing misinformation in the first place. And those forces are on the rise.“Why are misperceptions about contentious issues in politics and science seemingly so persistent and difficult to correct?” Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth College political scientist, posed in a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.It’s not for want of good information, which is ubiquitous. Exposure to good information does not reliably instill accurate beliefs anyway. Rather, Dr. Nyhan writes, a growing body of evidence suggests that the ultimate culprits are “cognitive and memory limitations, directional motivations to defend or support some group identity or existing belief, and messages from other people and political elites.” …
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
Fred, One thing leads to another. Back when we were kids then it was the age of missed information. All fat and happy were we then, but the age of Reagan followed and the age of misinformation was the natural evolution from that. As our generation forgot all that was learned from one WW to the next, then it missed the New Deal information that had made us fat and happy.
The American jobs machine tottered last month, confounding optimistic forecasts of the labor market’s recovery and sharpening debates over the impact of federal pandemic-related jobless benefits on the nation’s work force.Employers added 266,000 jobs in April, the government reported Friday, far below the gains registered in March. The jobless rate rose slightly, to 6.1 percent, as the labor force grew faster than the number of jobs. …“It turns out it’s easier to put an economy into a coma than wake it up,” Diane Swonk, chief economist for the accounting firm Grant Thornton, said of the disappointing report. Economists had forecast an addition of about a million jobs. …The prolonged uncertainty generated by a virus that killed millions around the world has not yet dissipated, creating skittishness among employers and workers. And there are still 8.2 million fewer jobs than existed before the pandemic.Despite the modest rate of hiring in April, there are strong signals that the economy is returning to health as infections ebb, vaccinations continue, restrictions lift and businesses reopen. Economists still predict a big expansion in the course of the year. …The largest job gains in April were in leisure and hospitality, two industries that had been particularly hard-hit during the pandemic. More dining out may mean less dining in, though. So as the number of restaurant workers rose, the number of grocery store clerks and couriers declined.The manufacturing sector lost 18,000 jobs even though consumer demand for goods has been strong. The Alliance for American Manufacturing blamed supply chain problems, noting that “drops in automotive sector employment are almost entirely due to semiconductor shortages.” …Economists, too, have raised concerns that supply bottlenecks in major industries could hamstring growth at a time when people are eager to buy. …
‘The Age of Misinformation’ When the future existence of the the GOP dependson dunning the US populace with lies and misinformation,you better believe they are going to do the dunning.
WASHINGTON — A stunningly disappointing jobs reportFriday demonstrates the rocky road to economic recovery from the pandemic and complicates President Biden’s push to sell trillions of dollars innew infrastructure and social safety net spendingfunded by taxes on corporations and the wealthy.The 266,000 jobs added in April marked a steep drop from the previous month and came in far below analysts’ forecasts of nearly a million new hires driven by COVID restrictions easing. The unemployment rate edged up to 6.1 percent, the first increase since the recovery began, but for a good reason — more people were actively looking for work. …
Economists cautioned not to read too much into one report and said the economic recovery remained on track, with the more reliable three-month average of job gains at a robust 524,000. The stock market agreed, with major indexes rising despite the news. …But that message of cautious optimism didn’t appear to resonate in Washington, where April’s lackluster job growth numbers quickly became grist for a partisan debate over the Biden administration’s efforts to rebuild a devastated labor market that remains 8 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.Biden and Democrats argued that much of the assistance from the $1.9 trillion rescue package enacted in March still hasn’t hit the economy and last month’s sluggish hiring shows their proposed nearly $4 trillion in investments in child care, education, and infrastructure jobs over the next decade are more needed than ever.“We’re still digging our way out of a very deep hole we were put in. No one should underestimate how tough this battle is,” Biden said in a speech from the White House Friday. “We still have a job to do here in Washington.” …
The vilification of Liz Cheney and a bizarre vote recount in Arizona showed the damage from his assault on a bedrock of democracy: election integrity.Locked out of Facebook, marooned in Mar-a-Lago and mocked for an amateurish new website, Donald J. Trump remained largely out of public sight this week. Yet the Republican Party’s capitulation to the former president became clearer than ever, as did the damage to American politics he has caused with his lie that the election was stolen from him.In Washington, Republicans moved to strip Representative Liz Cheney of her House leadership position, a punishment for denouncing Mr. Trump’s false claims of voter fraud as a threat to democracy. Lawmakers in Florida and Texas advanced sweeping new measures that would curtail voting, echoing the fictional narrative from Mr. Trump and his allies that the electoral system was rigged against him. And in Arizona, the state Republican Party started a bizarre re-examination of the November election results that involved searching for traces of bamboo in last year’s ballots.The churning dramas cast into sharp relief the extent to which the nation, six months after the election, is still struggling with the consequences of an unprecedented assault by a losing presidential candidate on a bedrock principle of American democracy: that the nation’s elections are legitimate.They also provided stark evidence that the former president has not only managed to squelch any dissent within his party but has persuaded most of the G.O.P. to make a gigantic bet: that the surest way to regain power is to embrace his pugilistic style, racial divisiveness and beyond-the-pale conspiracy theories rather than to court the suburban swing voters who cost the party the White House and who might be looking for substantive policies on the pandemic, the economy, health care and other issues. …
… as Republicans wrap themselves in the fantasy of a stolen election, Democrats are anchored in the day-to-day business of governing a nation that is still struggling to emerge from a deadly pandemic.Strategists from both parties say that discordant dynamic — two parties operating in two different realities — is likely to define the country’s politics for years to come. …
“It is a blog,” Kara Swisher, technology columnist for the New York Times told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “I was like ‘2002 is calling and it wants its blog back…'”I don’t know what the overall plan is because he does have some very sharp digital advisers. It is just the beginning of his attempts to try to re-establish a louder ability to participate in digital media.” Mr Trump’s senior adviser, Jason Miller, had previously said a new social media platform was to be launched. “This new platform is going to be big,” he said in March. …But Mr Miller tweeted on Tuesday that the new website was not the social media platform he had previously hyped.”We’ll have additional information coming on that front in the very near future,” he said.The website is reportedly built by Campaign Nucleus, a digital services company created by Mr Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale.Several posts on the site repeat debunked claims that last year’s presidential election was rigged. …
Having some people work from home while their teammates are in the office runs counter to much of what makes organizations tick.
Many people are convinced that post-pandemic corporate America will have a hybrid workforce, in which most people work from home and companies save on real estate and perks. As a behavioral scientist who spent the last two years researching and writing a book about connection, trust, and belonging, I’m betting pretty much everyone eventually will go back to the office.Here are four reasons.The Allen Curve. Thomas J. Allen, a professor of management at MIT, discovered in the 1970s that communication between people in an office increased exponentially the closer their desks were. If they were about 50 meters apart, they might as well have been on different planets. And even in the age of Slack, email, and Zoom, the fact remains: Out of sight is often out of mind. If some employees are seen only at video meetings, there is less chance the rest of the community will value them. …Trust. As distance increases, teams need higher levels of trust to function. And trust is traditionally created through little actions that are more fluid in person. These dynamics are so powerful that behavioral scientists have names for them like the “IKEA effect” — which is our propensity to care more about anyone or anything we put effort into, like the flat-pack furniture we assemble — and the “vulnerability loop,” which is when people come to trust each other more by demonstrating vulnerability and finding that other people respond by revealing their own vulnerability in return. When we are face to face, this is a basic part of interaction, as in the side conversations we have between meetings. … Working from home can be too convenient. Things that are convenient aren’t necessarily good for us. Lifting weights is hard, but it makes us stronger. Similarly, it is more convenient not to have a commute or change out of our pajamas, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for us. Having some commuting time, whether it’s walking, on public transit, or in a car, gives us an opportunity to let our minds wander and explore ideas. In these moments, you replay conversations from the day. Maybe you plan your discussion with your boss about a raise. You have time to process. Office life forces transitions and breaks throughout the day, as people shift between meeting rooms, desks, and meals and coffee. Of course, remote workers can plan breaks into their days, but most people aren’t very good at putting boundaries on their time.Belonging. One of the greatest predictors of our longevity is whether we have close social ties. It is clear that we are not designed to be alone. Our levels of oxytocin, a hormone that is released during moments of togetherness — such as hugging — also increase when we enjoy a team success or even when we march in unison. Our species evolved in communities, and we survived because we worked together. The companies that create the greatest sense of belonging are the ones that people stay at for years. It is hardto create a sense of community and a culture of belonging at a distance, but it’s even harder when employees have dramatically different home lives and may have never even met the rest of the team. …
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
Fred, If there are four reasons that people should not work from home, then why are there no reasons that their jobs should not be offshored? My wife works for Anthem. Her coworkers have been spread across several states and around the world to India for a long time, but several managers there still want workers coming into their respective local satellite offices. So, the fifth reason just might be that managers that do not even know how to do the jobs of their own subordinates are so insecure that they need to exert whatever tokens of control that they have at their disposal.
‘Belonging Is Stronger Than Facts’: The Age of Misinformation https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/world/asia/misinformation-disinformation-fake-news.html?smid=tw-share
There’s a decent chance you’ve had at least one of these rumors, all false, relayed to you as fact recently: that President Biden plans to force Americans to eat less meat; that Virginia is eliminating advanced math in schools to advance racial equality; and that border officials are mass-purchasing copies of Vice President Kamala Harris’s book to hand out to refugee children.All were amplified by partisan actors. But you’re just as likely, if not more so, to have heard it relayed from someone you know. And you may have noticed that these cycles of falsehood-fueled outrage keep recurring.We are in an era of endemic misinformation — and outright disinformation. Plenty of bad actors are helping the trend along. But the real drivers, some experts believe, are social and psychological forces that make people prone to sharing and believing misinformation in the first place. And those forces are on the rise.“Why are misperceptions about contentious issues in politics and science seemingly so persistent and difficult to correct?” Brendan Nyhan, a Dartmouth College political scientist, posed in a new paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.It’s not for want of good information, which is ubiquitous. Exposure to good information does not reliably instill accurate beliefs anyway. Rather, Dr. Nyhan writes, a growing body of evidence suggests that the ultimate culprits are “cognitive and memory limitations, directional motivations to defend or support some group identity or existing belief, and messages from other people and political elites.” …
Fred, One thing leads to another. Back when we were kids then it was the age of missed information. All fat and happy were we then, but the age of Reagan followed and the age of misinformation was the natural evolution from that. As our generation forgot all that was learned from one WW to the next, then it missed the New Deal information that had made us fat and happy.
Job Growth Slowed in April, Muddling Expectations https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/business/economy/jobs-report-april-2021.html?smid=tw-share
‘The Age of Misinformation’ When the future existence of the the GOP dependson dunning the US populace with lies and misinformation,you better believe they are going to do the dunning.
A disappointing jobs report shows rocky road for the recovery and President Biden’s efforts to push new spending https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/07/nation/disappointing-jobs-report-shows-rocky-road-recovery-bidens-efforts-push-new-spending/?event=event25
Economists cautioned not to read too much into one report and said the economic recovery remained on track, with the more reliable three-month average of job gains at a robust 524,000. The stock market agreed, with major indexes rising despite the news. …But that message of cautious optimism didn’t appear to resonate in Washington, where April’s lackluster job growth numbers quickly became grist for a partisan debate over the Biden administration’s efforts to rebuild a devastated labor market that remains 8 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic level.Biden and Democrats argued that much of the assistance from the $1.9 trillion rescue package enacted in March still hasn’t hit the economy and last month’s sluggish hiring shows their proposed nearly $4 trillion in investments in child care, education, and infrastructure jobs over the next decade are more needed than ever.“We’re still digging our way out of a very deep hole we were put in. No one should underestimate how tough this battle is,” Biden said in a speech from the White House Friday. “We still have a job to do here in Washington.” …
Marooned at Mar-a-Lago, Trump Still Has Iron Grip on Republicans https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/us/politics/trump-republicans-liz-cheney.html?smid=tw-share
… as Republicans wrap themselves in the fantasy of a stolen election, Democrats are anchored in the day-to-day business of governing a nation that is still struggling to emerge from a deadly pandemic.Strategists from both parties say that discordant dynamic — two parties operating in two different realities — is likely to define the country’s politics for years to come. …
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56989500Trump launches new ‘communications’ platform
Good Riddance, Donald Trump? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/opinion/trump-facebook-oversight-board.html?smid=tw-share
The hybrid workplace probably won’t last https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/09/opinion/hybrid-workplace-probably-wont-last/?event=event25
Many people are convinced that post-pandemic corporate America will have a hybrid workforce, in which most people work from home and companies save on real estate and perks. As a behavioral scientist who spent the last two years researching and writing a book about connection, trust, and belonging, I’m betting pretty much everyone eventually will go back to the office.Here are four reasons.The Allen Curve. Thomas J. Allen, a professor of management at MIT, discovered in the 1970s that communication between people in an office increased exponentially the closer their desks were. If they were about 50 meters apart, they might as well have been on different planets. And even in the age of Slack, email, and Zoom, the fact remains: Out of sight is often out of mind. If some employees are seen only at video meetings, there is less chance the rest of the community will value them. …Trust. As distance increases, teams need higher levels of trust to function. And trust is traditionally created through little actions that are more fluid in person. These dynamics are so powerful that behavioral scientists have names for them like the “IKEA effect” — which is our propensity to care more about anyone or anything we put effort into, like the flat-pack furniture we assemble — and the “vulnerability loop,” which is when people come to trust each other more by demonstrating vulnerability and finding that other people respond by revealing their own vulnerability in return. When we are face to face, this is a basic part of interaction, as in the side conversations we have between meetings. … Working from home can be too convenient. Things that are convenient aren’t necessarily good for us. Lifting weights is hard, but it makes us stronger. Similarly, it is more convenient not to have a commute or change out of our pajamas, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for us. Having some commuting time, whether it’s walking, on public transit, or in a car, gives us an opportunity to let our minds wander and explore ideas. In these moments, you replay conversations from the day. Maybe you plan your discussion with your boss about a raise. You have time to process. Office life forces transitions and breaks throughout the day, as people shift between meeting rooms, desks, and meals and coffee. Of course, remote workers can plan breaks into their days, but most people aren’t very good at putting boundaries on their time.Belonging. One of the greatest predictors of our longevity is whether we have close social ties. It is clear that we are not designed to be alone. Our levels of oxytocin, a hormone that is released during moments of togetherness — such as hugging — also increase when we enjoy a team success or even when we march in unison. Our species evolved in communities, and we survived because we worked together. The companies that create the greatest sense of belonging are the ones that people stay at for years. It is hard to create a sense of community and a culture of belonging at a distance, but it’s even harder when employees have dramatically different home lives and may have never even met the rest of the team. …
Fred, If there are four reasons that people should not work from home, then why are there no reasons that their jobs should not be offshored? My wife works for Anthem. Her coworkers have been spread across several states and around the world to India for a long time, but several managers there still want workers coming into their respective local satellite offices. So, the fifth reason just might be that managers that do not even know how to do the jobs of their own subordinates are so insecure that they need to exert whatever tokens of control that they have at their disposal.