I suspect the actual study may be slightly different than the articles about it.
I suspect the actual study may be slightly different than the articles about it. This article, for example, suggests bias by its quotes on things like how ridiculous the approach was that even conspiracy theorists didn't bite. That may be, but I and others have heard some of those statements and others very like them come out of people's mouths in anti-vaccine discussions and seminars and conferences, etc. So the Russians didn't just make things up, as suggested. They did research and maybe tweaked to try and amp it up, and maybe the attempt to amp up failed.
Or this paragraph:
More effective misinformation campaigns don’t contain messages with completely far-out correlations, as in the case of a Tweet that says something like “I don’t believe in vaccines, I believe in God,” which “doesn’t really make sense,” he said. Instead, they tap on something deeper that could be more plausible, if it wasn’t for the underlying facts.
First of all, that isn't far out. There are a number of recognized religions that espouse faith healing and they believe it. We have laws about the greater societal interest in taking care of children, not to mention the public good, versus other rights because of things like this. It's nice that it doesn't make sense to him, but it does to a number of people. There are all sorts of things you might like to characterize as nonsensical when addressing religious and cultural values in providing medical care, but they're real and people believe them.
As for something deeper, well, it doesn't get much deeper than religious belief. However, I get that he's talking about the kinds of things that get at deep seated, easily manipulated by propaganda fears (those foreigners are taking my job/country/child, etc). Things that go straight for the amygdala. Vaccines are scary but they aren't on the level of being murdered in your bed by someone who looks different and talks different. Of course, the problem is that when you hit such base level emotional buttons, underlying facts don't mean squat, so there is no "if it wasn't for".
Anyway, I suspect there's more to the paper and it probably has some less sensational, more sensible things to say than the coverage of it suggests.
http://fortune.com/2018/08/24/twitter-russian-troll-anti-vaccine/
http://fortune.com/2018/08/24/twitter-russian-troll-anti-vaccine/
Or this paragraph:
More effective misinformation campaigns don’t contain messages with completely far-out correlations, as in the case of a Tweet that says something like “I don’t believe in vaccines, I believe in God,” which “doesn’t really make sense,” he said. Instead, they tap on something deeper that could be more plausible, if it wasn’t for the underlying facts.
First of all, that isn't far out. There are a number of recognized religions that espouse faith healing and they believe it. We have laws about the greater societal interest in taking care of children, not to mention the public good, versus other rights because of things like this. It's nice that it doesn't make sense to him, but it does to a number of people. There are all sorts of things you might like to characterize as nonsensical when addressing religious and cultural values in providing medical care, but they're real and people believe them.
As for something deeper, well, it doesn't get much deeper than religious belief. However, I get that he's talking about the kinds of things that get at deep seated, easily manipulated by propaganda fears (those foreigners are taking my job/country/child, etc). Things that go straight for the amygdala. Vaccines are scary but they aren't on the level of being murdered in your bed by someone who looks different and talks different. Of course, the problem is that when you hit such base level emotional buttons, underlying facts don't mean squat, so there is no "if it wasn't for".
Anyway, I suspect there's more to the paper and it probably has some less sensational, more sensible things to say than the coverage of it suggests.
http://fortune.com/2018/08/24/twitter-russian-troll-anti-vaccine/
http://fortune.com/2018/08/24/twitter-russian-troll-anti-vaccine/
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