Fake news is a threat to humanity, but scientists may have a solution | Dana Nuccitelli

"Technocognition" proposes that we use technology and psychology to break through the mental barriers that make people deny threats like climate changePeople are very good at finding ways to believe what we want to believe. Climate change is the perfect example - acceptance of climate science among Americans is strongly related to political ideology. This has exposed humanity's potentially fatal flaw. Denying an existential threat threatens our existence.But that's exactly what many ideological conservatives do. Partisan polarization over climate change has steadily grown over the past two decades. This change can largely be traced to the increasingly fractured and partisan media environment that has created an echo chamber in which people can wrap themselves in the comfort of "alternative facts" (a.k.a spin and lies) that affirm their worldviews. We've become too good at fooling ourselves into believing falsehoods, which has ushered in a dangerous "post-truth" era, with no better example than the subject of climate change. Continue reading...