Intuition, Reason, and Social Media

This Cyber Alliance talk, featuring University of Regina's Hill/Levene Schools of Business Assistant Prof. Gordon Pennycook, will discuss how, contrary to the narrative that social media algorithms impact cognition, his research shows that people can and do override their intuitions and that reasoning often facilitates accurate belief formation. Although social media may impact what is salient to us when making choices about what to share with others, this is not intractable: Simple prompts that remind people to think about accuracy are sufficient to increase the quality of the news content that people share. This indicates that unreasonable behavior on social media is more a function of lazy thinking than of an inability for people to overcome social media algorithms.<br>There will be time for casual conversation before and after the presentation. Please email Mayank Varia at varia@bu.edu to request Zoom invite details.

When 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm on Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Location Zoom