Intellectual Humility Series
The building blocks of polarization and misinformation susceptibility: An individual differences approach
MSTAR is hosting a grant to promote intellectual humility. Intellectual humility involves humility in the context of one’s beliefs, values, and worldview. As it relates to stress, rigid or distorted beliefs cause us to perceive greater threat, which amplifies stress and increases the odds of conflict within relationships. Imagine how much stress might occur if a variety of factors colluded to make people more susceptible to polarized beliefs that are grossly misaligned with reality.
High Points
Dr. Bowes is one of the key collaborators on this project, and she co-led evaluation of proposals in the Request for Proposals.
On Monday 11/27, she will give a talk based on her recent work on polarization and misinformation. The talk will occur online at 12pm.
Title
The building blocks of polarization and misinformation susceptibility: An individual differences approach
Abstract
Beliefs have the power to drive human behavior—for better (e.g., advocating for social justice) and for worse (e.g., gun violence)—so it is essential to understand how, when, and why people latch onto certain beliefs over others. My research adopts an individual differences approach to illuminate the psychological factors that predict accurate, openminded thinking and those that predict inaccurate, closeminded thinking. Both steps are necessary to create a wiser, less polarized society. I study political polarization, misinformation susceptibility, and intellectual humility as three separate (yet interrelated) windows onto how people form, maintain, and interact with their beliefs. In this talk, I will show that a constellation of individual differences variables is powerful for understanding political polarization and misinformation susceptibility. I leverage the findings from my published work to generate developmental and multi-method studies focused on uncovering the building blocks of political ideology and misinformation susceptibility. I will discuss how my existing body of research provides a strong foundation for identifying and intervening on the pathways leading from belief to behavior.