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https://theconversation.com/conspiracy-theories-do-300-000-kiwis-really-believe-canada-is-building-an-army-of-mutant-super-raccoons-282478>
"Four percent of Americans – roughly 12 million people – believe that “lizard
people” secretly control the Earth. At least, that was the finding of an
infamous 2013 public opinion survey.
Do so many people really believe such outlandish claims? Or do results like
these partly reflect people giving silly answers or deliberately skewing
surveys for fun?
US psychiatrist Alexander Scott believes the latter plays a significant role.
Using the survey as an example, he coined the term “the Lizardman constant” to
describe the idea that a certain amount of noise and trolling will always exist
in surveys about unusual beliefs.
As Scott warned: “Any possible source of noise – jokesters, cognitive biases,
or deliberate misbehaviour – can easily overwhelm the signal.”
As researchers who study uncommon beliefs such as conspiracy theories, we
wanted to investigate how this kind of cheeky trolling can muddy the waters."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
