Anti-vaxxers – fear, anxiety and the psychology of misinformation

Politics on the Couch

Rafael Behr explores the causes of resistance to vaccine science and its links with far-right propaganda with Imran Ahmed, founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

The chat ranges from the emotional vulnerabilities that lead people to take comfort from conspiracy theories to the political obligations on social media companies to help defend democracy from malevolent, weaponised lies.

Along the way, Rafael and Imran touch on politics, psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, the scientific method, Hugo Boss's Nazi tailoring and some practical advice for dealing with toxic falsehood online.

The two reports mentioned in the episode are Don't Feed the Trolls:

https://www.counterhate.com/dont-feed-the-trolls

And the Anti-Vaxx Playbook:

https://www.counterhate.com/playbook

Imran also mentions Ashli Babbit who was killed in the Washington DC Capitol riot:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/09/ashli-babbitt-capitol-mob-trump-qanon-conspiracy-theory

And a Guardian report about the Tuskegee Study Imran discusses:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/08/guatemala-victims-us-syphilis-study

Our podcast was recently chosen by Feedspot as one of the best 15 English-speaking political science podcasts in the world.

https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

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