Conspicuous Cognition

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Dan Williams
40
There is no "woke mind virus"
The ideas you dislike—whether wokeism, religion, or misinformation—are not “mind viruses” and do not spread via contagion. This framing seeks to…
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Dan Williams
146

August 2024

Contra critical theory
Academics are often rewarded for discovering novel ways of criticising and condemning Western societies. This generates lots of biased, one-sided…
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Dan Williams
28
Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 3: The Prevalence and Impact of Fake News
Contrary to conventional wisdom, online fake news is rare and mainly consumed by a minority of social media users with pre-existing fringe views.
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Dan Williams
17
The social construction of bespoke realities
Self-deception often depends on epistemic teamwork.
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Dan Williams
74
Did online misinformation fuel the UK riots?
On the importance of thinking carefully about complex problems
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Dan Williams
42
Fashionable ideas
The aesthetics of information (and reflections on luxury beliefs).
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Dan Williams
78

July 2024

Why do people believe true things?
Ignorance and misperceptions are not puzzling. The challenge is to explain why some people see reality accurately.
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Dan Williams
82
The marketplace of misleading ideas
In the marketplace of ideas, are people shopping for truth?
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Dan Williams
41
Are people too flawed, ignorant, and tribal for open societies?
A deep dive into four factors that prevent members of open societies from understanding political reality: complexity, invisibility, incentives, and…
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Dan Williams
86
Six months on Substack
Six brief reflections
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Dan Williams
11

June 2024

Biden's age and the problem with the misinformation cope
The tendency to dismiss challenges to liberal orthodoxies as "misinformation" is costly.
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Dan Williams
46
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