n the summer of 2009, Adam Berinsky had just published a book on U.S. attitudes to war and was ready to focus on something new. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology political scientist watched as debates on the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, devolved into talks of “death panels.” Meanwhile, his mother-in-law was sending him emails questioning whether Obama was born in the United States. “I felt like, ‘This is crazy. What is going on?!’”...
The field is making headway on these issues, says Rebekah Tromble, a political scientist at George Washington University. Some researchers are moving away from using the term misinformation entirely, instead talking about “rumors” or “conspiracy theories,” which allow for more nuanced research into specific kinds of misinformation.
Read the full article in Science