Confirmation bias: a hardwired part of human psychology, which can makes us particularly vulnerable to online misinformation and disinformation. Conspiracy theories about Covid-19 have dramatically escalated since Delta arrived in New Zealand in late August, researchers have found. They concluded the disinformation “landscape” was “sophisticated, motivated, adaptive, resilient, increasingly violent and significantly volatile”. During the study period they saw a shift from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine resistance among the core groups monitored on Telegram. Researchers observed the targeting of Māori by cis-male (those whose gender identity and sex assigned at birth is male) and Pākehā mis- and dis-information proponents.

Source: Stuff November 10, 2021 00:18 UTC