New paper / “Infostorms” / 11.04.2013

Press release / University of Copenhagen, Thursday 11.04.2013 12:18 PM CEST

Information technology amplifies irrational group behaviour

Web tools and social media are our key sources of information when we make decisions as citizens and consumers. But these information technologies can mislead us by magnifying social processes that distort facts and make us act contrary to our own interests – such as buying property at wildly inflated prices because we are led to believe that everybody else is. New research from the University of Copenhagen, which has just been published in the journal Metaphilosophy, combines formal philosophy, social psychology, and decision theory to understand and tackle these phenomena.

“Group behaviour that encourages us to make decisions based on false beliefs has always existed. However, with the advent of the internet and social media, this kind of behaviour is more likely to occur than ever, and on a much larger scale, with possibly severe consequences for the democratic institutions underpinning the information societies we live in,” says Professor of Formal Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen Vincent F. Hendricks.

In the article Infostorms just published in the journal Metaphilosophy, he and fellow researchers Pelle G. Hansen and Rasmus K. Rendsvig analyse a number of social information processes which are enhanced by modern information technology.

Read entire press release

Read also Science Daily / April 11, 2013

Read also Slate Magazine / April 16, 2013