14 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2023
    1. Who falls for fake news? Psychological and clinical profiling evidence of fake news consumers

      Participants with a schizotypal, paranoid, and histrionic personality were ineffective at detecting fake news. They were also more vulnerable to suffer its negative effects. Specifically, they displayed higher levels of anxiety and committed more cognitive biases based on suggestibility and the Barnum Effect. No significant effects on psychotic symptomatology or affective mood states were observed. Corresponding to these outcomes, two clinical and therapeutic recommendations related to the reduction of the Barnum Effect and the reinterpretation of digital media sensationalism were made. The impact of fake news and possible ways of prevention are discussed.

      Fake news and personality disorders

      The observed relationship between fake news and levels of schizotypy was consistent with previous scientific evidence on pseudoscientific beliefs and magical ideation (see Bronstein et al., 2019; Escolà-Gascón, Marín, et al., 2021). Following the dual process theory model (e.g., Pennycook & Rand, 2019), when a person does not correctly distinguish between information with scientific arguments and information without scientific grounds it is because they predominantly use cognitive reasoning characterized by intuition (e.g., Dagnall, Drinkwater, et al., 2010; Swami et al., 2014; Dagnall et al., 2017b; Williams et al., 2021).

      Concomitantly, intuitive thinking correlates positively with magical beliefs (see Šrol, 2021). Psychopathological classifications include magical beliefs as a dimension of schizotypal personality (e.g., Escolà-Gascón, 2020a). Therefore, it is possible that the high schizotypy scores in this study can be explained from the perspective of dual process theory (Denovan et al., 2018; Denovan et al., 2020; Drinkwater, Dagnall, Denovan, & Williams, 2021). Intuitive thinking could be the moderating variable that explains why participants who scored higher in schizotypy did not effectively detect fake news.

      Something similar happened with the subclinical trait of paranoia. This variable scored the highest in both group 1 and group 2 (see Fig. 1). Intuition is also positively related to conspiratorial ideation (see Drinkwater et al., 2020; Gligorić et al., 2021). Similarly, psychopathology tends to classify conspiracy ideation as a frequent belief system in paranoid personality (see Escolà-Gascón, 2022). This is because conspiracy beliefs are based on systematic distrust of the systems that structure society (political system), knowledge (science) and economy (capitalism) (Dagnall et al., 2015; Swami et al., 2014). Likewise, it is known that distrust is the transversal characteristic of paranoid personality (So et al., 2022). Then, in this case the use of intuitive thinking and dual process theory could also justify the obtained paranoia scores. The same is not true for the histrionic personality.

      The Barnum Effect

      The Barnum Effect consists of accepting as exclusive a verbal description of an individual's personality, when, the description employs contents applicable or generalizable to any profile or personality that one wishes to describe (see Boyce & Geller, 2002; O’Keeffe & Wiseman, 2005). The error of this bias is to assume as exclusive or unique information that is not. This error can occur in other contexts not limited to personality descriptions. Originally, this bias was studied in the field of horoscopes and pseudoscience's (see Matute et al., 2011). Research results suggest that people who do not effectively detect fake news regularly commit the Barnum Effect. So, one way to prevent fake news may be to educate about what the Barnum Effect is and how to avoid it.

      Conclusions

      The conclusions of this research can be summarized as follows: (1) The evidence obtained proposes that profiles with high scores in schizotypy, paranoia and histrionism are more vulnerable to the negative effects of fake news. In clinical practice, special caution is recommended for patients who meet the symptomatic characteristics of these personality traits.

      (2) In psychiatry and clinical psychology, it is proposed to combat fake news by reducing or recoding the Barnum effect, reinterpreting sensationalism in the media and promoting critical thinking in social network users. These suggestions can be applied from intervention programs but can also be implemented as psychoeducational programs for massive users of social networks.

      (3) Individuals who do not effectively detect fake news tend to have higher levels of anxiety, both state and trait anxiety. These individuals are also highly suggestible and tend to seek strong emotions. Profiles of this type may inappropriately employ intuitive thinking, which could be the psychological mechanism that.

      (4) Positive psychotic symptomatology, affective mood states and substance use (addiction risks) were not affected by fake news. In the field of psychosis, it should be analyzed whether fake news influences negative psychotic symptomatology.

  2. Mar 2022
    1. En somme, les études sur la communication des élèves atteints d’autisme permettent de mettre en évidence l’importance d’un contexte riche en stimulations appropriées (sons et images), mais également une évidente « stabilité » de l’information à décoder, le suivi des émotions des personnages, le rôle de l’imitation dans les apprentissages. Ces résultats encouragent donc l’usage d’outils informatiques adéquats pour améliorer la communication sociale chez les enfants atteints d’autisme.

      L'association de deux sujets qui n'ont pas de corrélation vérifiéé, revient dans la conclusion en contradiction avec la conclusion de l'étude de Ramdoss, S et al.

    2. Nous allons montrer par une courte analyse de quelques études l’impact du travail éducatif informatisé dans l’apprentissage de la communication sociale chez des enfants atteints d’autisme.

      En contradiction avec l'hypothèse :

      Results suggest that CBI should not yet be considered a researched-based approach to teaching communication skills to individuals with ASD. However, CBI does seem a promising practice that warrants future research. Les résultats suggèrent que le CBI ne devrait pas encore être considéré comme un approche fondée sur la recherche pour enseigner les compétences en communication aux personnes ayant Troubles du Spectre Autistique. Cependant, le CBI semble être une pratique prometteuse qui justifie des recherches futures.

  3. Jan 2022
  4. Oct 2021
    1. “I am worried that Mark’s continuing pattern of answering a different question than the question that was asked is a symptom of some larger problem,” wrote one Facebook employee in an internal post in June 2020, referring to Zuckerberg. “I sincerely hope that I am wrong, and I’m still hopeful for progress. But I also fully understand my colleagues who have given up on this company, and I can’t blame them for leaving. Facebook is not neutral, and working here isn’t either.”

      Glad to see that others are seeing Mark Zuckerberg seems to be the one with the flaws that are killing Facebook.

  5. Jun 2021
  6. Feb 2021
  7. Aug 2020
  8. May 2017
    1. Russia could use that detail to help identify the U.S. ally or intelligence capability involved. Officials said the capability could be useful for other purposes, possibly providing intelligence on Russia’s presence in Syria. Moscow would be keenly interested in identifying that source and perhaps disrupting it.

      This shows how dangerous Trump is to our national security.

    2. Trump revealed the city in the Islamic State’s territory where the U.S. intelligence partner detected the threat.

      Seems to be a very serious threat to a source. Does this constitute treason?

    3. Trump seemed to be boasting about his inside knowledge of the looming threat. “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.

      Consistent with his narcissism and grandiosity but also with his pathological insecurity.

  9. Mar 2017
    1. SHOWS

      In the original article, it was said that vaccines directly cause brain disorders, which is not what the study found. The study said that there was a time-oriented association (not even a coorelation) between the amount of certain diagnosed brain disorders and antecendant vaccines. The study never makes the claim of causation, though the phrasing of the title (out of onctext, that is) is common for clickbait articles such as this. While not completely made up, the original research as a completely different tone than what is being presented by this article. In addition, the original artice discuses limitation that are completely thrown out by this article: they mention that doctors diagnose disorders differently than other doctors, which is something readers/sharers of the article ought to be aware of.

      Though I found the original research, the message of this article has completely distorted Yale's findings. The study was writen from a HINDSIGHT perspective. Meaning, they mentioned vaccines are received more often by those who have any of the aforementioned disorders. For exaple, they say, "The principal findings of this study are as follows: (i) children with OCD, AN, anxiety disorder, and tic disorder were more likely to have received influenza vaccine during the preceding 1-year period". The entire study was merely showing (seemingly unintentionaly so) that those who have mental disorders are more likely to hae received vaccinations in the past several years. Not even close to stating that they are directly caused by vaccines. The article doesn't mention this, but one reason may be socioeconomic status, IE the wealthy have better doctors who diagnose, and they can afford more vaccines for their cildren. The article has completely distorted the findings and ignored the mentioned limitations of the article.

      Citations: Webber, P. (2017, February 10). BREAKING: Yale Study SHOWS Vaccines Cause Brain Disorders - RFK Jr. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://newamericannews.com/yale-study-shows-vaccines-cause-brain-disorders-rfk-jr/#

      Leslie, D. L., Kobre, R. A., Richmand, B. J., Guloksuz, S. A., & Leckman, J. F. (2017, January 04). Temporal Association of Certain Neuropsychiatric Disorders Following Vaccination of Children and Adolescents: A Pilot Case–Control Study. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00003/full

  10. Feb 2017
    1. mentally healthy president

      Malignant narcissism, cognitive impairment, no self-observing ego, no conscience, paranoia, hypomania. A mix of character disorder (which is set young and untreatable), organic brain disease, and mix of mental illnesses. Only the latter will lead to a breakdown.