16. februar 2023 arrangerte prosjektteamet #Webimmunization et åpent nettseminar: «Demagogery, Technology, and Cognition: Addressing the Threats to Democracy». Foredragsholder var prof. Stephan Lewandowsky fra University of Bristol.

Prof. Stephan Lewandowsky er en australsk psykolog. Han har jobbet i både USA og Australia, og er for tiden basert ved University of Bristol, Storbritannia, hvor han er styreleder for kognitiv psykologi ved School of Psychological Science. Forskningen hans, som opprinnelig gjaldt datasimuleringer av folks beslutningsprosesser, har nylig fokusert på publikums forståelse av vitenskap og hvorfor folk ofte omfavner tro som er skarpt i strid med vitenskapelig bevis. Mer informasjon om vår gjesteforedragsholder finner du her.

Arrangementet ble holdt online via Teams-plattformen og ble gjennomført på engelsk.

Opptaket:

Abstract:
Democracy is in retreat or under pressure worldwide. Even in countries with strong democracies, polarization is increasing, and the public sphere is awash in misinformation and conspiracy theories. Many commentators have blamed social media and the lack of platform governance for these unfortunate trends, whereas others have celebrated the Internet as a tool for liberation, with each opinion being buttressed by supporting evidence. One way to resolve this paradox is by identifying some of the pressure points that arise between the architecture of human cognition and the online information landscape, and how these pressure points can be used by populist demagogues to undermine democracy. I survey some of those pressure points, focusing on the attention economy and the algorithms that curate our news feeds, and I show how they allow politicians to replace evidence-based discourse with often emotive belief-speaking that is less sensitive to evidence and accountability. I discuss a spectrum of possible solutions.

The #Webimmunization project is being carried out in the framework of a consortium that includes: Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum, Maj Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan University of Technology, and the University of Oslo. The seminar is hosted by the Poznan partner of the project – a research group led by Prof. Mikolaj Morzy (Poznan University of Technology).