Many observers have expressed concern about the status of evidence and
facts in current political discourse, in particular in the United States
and United Kingdom. The word “post-truth” was word of the year in 2016,
only to be replaced by “fake news” in 2017. According to fact-checkers,
Donald Trump has issued more than 9,000 false or misleading claims since
assuming the presidency. What are the consequences of the apparent
deterioration of public discourse? Why do some voters consider politicians
who serially make false claims to be honest? How can we move on from here?
I present data from a number of studies that explored those questions, and
I point towards a solution based on the idea of “technocognition”; that is,
the cognitively-inspired redesign of information architecture to convert
the current attention economy to a cognitive society.
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William Crozier, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Duke University Law School
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John Jay College, The Graduate Center, City University of New York 2017
Penn State Schreyers Honors Class 2012