Fake News and Political Misperceptions

At its core, politics is about the psychology of persuasion. Through rhetorical machination, argumentation, and debate, communicators try to influence how citizens think about an issue, candidate, or event. In the age of fake news and alternative facts, where misleading, sensationalized, or disproven information abounds, how individuals arrive at their political beliefs and acquire political knowledge is of central importance. In this course, we step inside the mind of citizens and political elites to explore the psychological processes underlying the persistence and consequences of misinformation for political psychology. We examine interdisciplinary perspectives on mass communication, the structure and function of belief systems and political identity, and strategies for correcting political misperception (which often fail). A major goal of this course is to consider how psychological science contributes to our understanding of politics, and how the study of politics advances our understanding of human nature.