Quotes and things from Frank McCulley

“It is important to recognize just how much of our ‘Wrongness’ can come from us” – page 35

Our wrongness stems from the 3 Cs:

• Comprehension: We want to make sense of the our world
• Control: We want agency over things that seem chaotic and uncontrollable
• Community: We want a sense of belonging and to be a part of a social group

“People who are high in the ‘need for cognition’ are more likely to evaluate and reevaluate information before updating their beliefs, and so are less susceptible to mis- and disinformation” – page 37

“Individuals who have a high level of the trait ‘need for closure’ tend to prioritize efficiency over accuracy.” – page 38

Misinformation:

• “Inconsistent with ‘clear evidence and expert opinion’” – page 18
• Offers hope – page 40

Ways science should help

• Falsifiability principle says we never remove ourself from doubt…we understand we are never totally right; we are just varying levels of ‘not wrong’ – page 27
• Must be aware of confirmation bias, the human tendency to pay more attention to information that confirms are preexisting theories and beliefs – page 29
• Things that are unable to be falsified are conspiracy theories – page 44

“We find greater belief in conspiracy theories among people who feel powerless” – page 46

“Narratives that offer alternative explanations for these terrifying moments, especially narratives that propose the events were either preventable or staged, promise to make us feel safer” – page 48

Notes Compiled by Deb Landry

Chapters 1 and 2:

• “But focusing only, or even primarily, on the side of misinformation supply is not going to solve the problem of identity-driven wrongness.” (p.22).  Just like anything else, hand-wringing alone will not make things better.  Citizens need to fact-check, perhaps using the resources Kelli handed out to us during our first book’s discussion to find out whether online sources are reputable.  Fact-checking should have been performed at all of the presidential debates, rather than just one, so that Trump did not have the opportunity to spread lies and misinformation.
• Often, “… in daily life, our goal in observing the world is not to get closer to the truth.” (p.31).  Instead, and I know I’m probably guilty of this too, we try to achieve Young’s “Three Cs (comprehension, control, and community)”: “to make sense, feel in control, and feel part of my group.” (p.35)
• After reading p.37, I feel a lot more confident in my tendency to wait a bit before reacting or responding– as long as I don’t wait too long to articulate my thoughts, especially if I’m trying to combat misinformation.
• I think we have all agreed, in previous discussions, that “people really need hope.” (p.40).  We just really need to make sure people are informed and/or educated as to how to critically-think for themselves in order to find the truth.

Connections I Made with Timothy Snyder’s On Freedom

• Young states that building human knowledge is social in nature; we learned from Snyder that building freedom can never be done alone
• Young states that we need “standards” to hold ourselves accountable when drawing conclusions from observation and lived experiences; Snyder speaks often of “values,” which serve the same purpose.  The problem here is that Democrats and Republicans have not been able to agree on much of anything for a very long time, so our country is working with two sets of standards or values.  Young attributes this to “the loss of a single collective reality,” (p.51), and Snyder explained to us that our country began a downward spiral into this chaos back in the 1980s.