Silencing Science

How to Respond to Disinformation and Toxic Public Discourse

Presented by:

The David Suzuki Institute

James Hoggan

with Mark Shakespear

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

  1. Max Cameron on civil discourse.

  2. Uncivil discourse, examples of organized lying, conspiracy theories, and gaslighting.

  3. Understanding disinformation, propaganda and conspiracy theories.

  4. Countering disinformation.

  5. Debunking & pre-bunking.

  6. The light of positive reciprocity.

  7. Summary.

Acknowledgements.

Bibliography: Resources for understanding & responding to disinformation & toxic public discourse

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Alice Marwick

Associate Professor of Communication and co-founder and Principal Researcher at the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Beth Fisher-Yoshida

Professor of professional practice, program director, M.S. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University.

Craig Silverman

Founder of Emergent Factchecker, founding editor of BuzzFeed Canada, and previous media editor of BuzzFeed News.

Filippo Menczer

Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, with courtesy appointments in cognitive science and physics.

John Cook

Research Fellow at the Centre for Behavior Change at the University of Melbourne.

Lee McIntrye

Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University.

Peter Kim

Professor of Management and Organization at University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

Nancy MacLean

William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University.

Roderik Rekker

Assistant Professor of comparative politics at Radboud University, Netherlands.

Thomas Homer-Dixon

Founder and executive director of the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University.

Anat Shenker-Osorio

Expert on framing strategies and persuasion, principal and founder of ASO Communications.

Claire Wardle

Professor of the Practice and co-founder and co-director of the Information Futures Lab at the Brown School of Public Health.

Edward Maibach

Distinguished University Professor and Director of George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication in Virginia.

Guy Itzchakov

Associate Professor of Human Services at the University of Haifa and Director of the Interpersonal Listening and Social Influence Lab.

Justin Ling

Montreal-based freelance investigative journalist covering issues including privacy, security, foreign policy, politics, law and defence.

Madalina Vlasceanu

Assistant Professor of environmental behavioral sciences at Stanford University.

Sacha Altay

Experimental psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow working on misinformation at the Digital Democracy Lab at the University of Zurich.

Tobias Rose-Stockwell

Writer, designer, media researcher and author of the book Outrage Machine.

Arlie R. Hochschild

Professor Emeritus in the Sociology Department at University of California, Berkeley, is one of the most influential sociologists of her generation.

Clara Pretus

Serra Húnter professor in the Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Health Sciences at the University of Barcelona.

Elin Kelsey

Leading spokesperson, scholar and educator in the area of evidence-based hope. Author of Hope Matters.

Jay Van Bavel

Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University, where he directs the Social Identity and Morality Lab.

Karin Tamerius

Political psychiatrist, an expert in persuasive political discourse, and the founder of Smart Politics.

Richard Petty

Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Ohio State University, is a world-leading expert on persuasion.

Stephan Lewandowsky

Chair in Cognitive Psychology at the School of Psychological Science at University of Bristol in the UK.