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Believing misinformation is a “win” for some people, even when proven false (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 month ago by Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone to c/science@mander.xyz

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The strongest predictor of whether someone believed in COVID-19-related misinformation and risks related to the vaccine was whether they viewed COVID-19 prevention efforts in terms of symbolic strength and weakness. In other words, this group focused on whether an action would make them appear to fend off or “give in” to untoward influence.

[…]

Our findings highlight the limits of countering misinformation directly, because for some people, literal truth is not the point.

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This paper makes an assumption that there are no known risks with the covid-19 vaccinations, which is factually incorrect, and thus it's engaging in the same type of misinformation reinforcement that it laments

Much of the misinformation is the lack of nuance, or willingness to engage with details...

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The risks from the vaccine are lower than if you contracted covid by several orders of magnitude which makes it extremely hard to justify being afraid of the vaccine but not covid. So for ease of speech you can say there is no risk from the vaccine.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No risk from the vaccine is misinformation, the fact some of us feel justified employing misinformation because we feel we are comfortable for the risk calculus doesn't invalidate the actual documented risks of a vaccine. Hence the irony

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 2 points 1 month ago

And where does the paper say that? You claim it "makes an assumption that there are no known risks with the covid-19 vaccinations" but I didn't see any such assumption made.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Funny that when reading "covid-19 prevention" you forgot anti-maskers - which is actually a very visible "I win" statement - but instead went for not being vaccinated, which is not at all a visible thing hence nowhere as much a "I win" statement.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 2 points 1 month ago

The article indicates multiple instances of what it considers to be misinformation, I illustrated one point that isn't absolute misinformation, which is ironic given what they are trying to say....