Misinformation and the epistemic integrity of democracy

Stephan Lewandowsky; Ullrich K H Ecker; John Cook; Sander Van Der Linden; Jon Roozenbeek; Naomi Oreskes

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101711

Misinformation and the epistemic integrity of democracy

Stephan Lewandowsky^*, Ullrich K H Ecker, John Cook, Sander Van Der Linden, Jon Roozenbeek, Naomi Oreskes

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Democracy relies on a shared body of knowledge among citizens, for example trust in elections and reliable knowledge to inform policy-relevant debate. We review the evidence for widespread disinformation campaigns that are undermining this shared knowledge. We establish a common pattern by which science and scientists are discredited and how the most recent frontier in those attacks involves researchers in misinformation itself. We list several ways in which psychology can contribute to countermeasures.

Original language	English
Article number	101711
Journal	Current Opinion in Psychology
Volume	54
Early online date	19 Oct 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101711
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
SL acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant 101020961 PRODEMINFO), the Humboldt Foundation through a research award, the Volkswagen Foundation (grant “Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online”), and from UK Research and Innovation (through the Centre of Excellence, REPHRAIN). UKHE acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (grant FT190100708). JR acknowledges support from the British Academy (#PF21-210010), Google Jigsaw, IRIS Coalition ( UK Government , #SCH-00001-3391), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, #ES/V011960/1), and the Global Engagement Center (US Department of State).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Research Groups and Themes

TeDCog
Cognitive Science

Keywords

integrity of democracy
attacks on scientists
climate science
misinformation

Access to Document

10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101711Licence: CC BY

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Persistent link

Protecting the Democratic Information Space in Europe
Lewandowsky, S. (Principal Investigator), Westaway, R. M. (Administrator) & Carrella, F. (Researcher)
1/10/21 → 30/09/26
Project: Research, Parent

Cite this

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abstract = "Democracy relies on a shared body of knowledge among citizens, for example trust in elections and reliable knowledge to inform policy-relevant debate. We review the evidence for widespread disinformation campaigns that are undermining this shared knowledge. We establish a common pattern by which science and scientists are discredited and how the most recent frontier in those attacks involves researchers in misinformation itself. We list several ways in which psychology can contribute to countermeasures.",

keywords = "integrity of democracy, attacks on scientists, climate science, misinformation",

author = "Stephan Lewandowsky and Ecker, {Ullrich K H} and John Cook and {Van Der Linden}, Sander and Jon Roozenbeek and Naomi Oreskes",

note = "Funding Information: SL acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant 101020961 PRODEMINFO), the Humboldt Foundation through a research award, the Volkswagen Foundation (grant “Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online”), and from UK Research and Innovation (through the Centre of Excellence, REPHRAIN). UKHE acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (grant FT190100708). JR acknowledges support from the British Academy (#PF21-210010), Google Jigsaw, IRIS Coalition ( UK Government , #SCH-00001-3391), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, #ES/V011960/1), and the Global Engagement Center (US Department of State). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors",

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AU - Ecker, Ullrich K H

AU - Cook, John

AU - Van Der Linden, Sander

AU - Roozenbeek, Jon

AU - Oreskes, Naomi

N1 - Funding Information: SL acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant 101020961 PRODEMINFO), the Humboldt Foundation through a research award, the Volkswagen Foundation (grant “Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online”), and from UK Research and Innovation (through the Centre of Excellence, REPHRAIN). UKHE acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (grant FT190100708). JR acknowledges support from the British Academy (#PF21-210010), Google Jigsaw, IRIS Coalition ( UK Government , #SCH-00001-3391), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, #ES/V011960/1), and the Global Engagement Center (US Department of State). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

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AB - Democracy relies on a shared body of knowledge among citizens, for example trust in elections and reliable knowledge to inform policy-relevant debate. We review the evidence for widespread disinformation campaigns that are undermining this shared knowledge. We establish a common pattern by which science and scientists are discredited and how the most recent frontier in those attacks involves researchers in misinformation itself. We list several ways in which psychology can contribute to countermeasures.

KW - integrity of democracy

KW - attacks on scientists

KW - climate science

KW - misinformation

U2 - 10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101711

DO - 10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101711

M3 - Review article (Academic Journal)

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Misinformation and the epistemic integrity of democracy

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Research Groups and Themes

Keywords

Access to Document

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Projects

Protecting the Democratic Information Space in Europe

Cite this