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Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

nature.com

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Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#81

Post by mrtesthah »

tim333 wrote: post #79
mrtesthah wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind citing any specific passage that you perceive to be "incredibly politicized"? Can you cite one of these "political judgments" from the paper?

I thought the first example they gave: >Conspiracy theories undermined global efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic was maybe ironic. Listening to the people at the start who said it was likely a lab screw up rather than dismissing them as conspiracy theorists might have led to better efforts to contain it. (for those interested here's the then head of the US CDC talking about being blocked from g…

There are many conspiracy theories besides the one you cited. A conspiracy that covid is not real or does not kill people very obviously undermines compliance with public health directives.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#82

Post by mrtesthah »

koonsolo wrote: post #77
mrtesthah wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really the mechanism at work here. Lonely people don't turn to conspiracy theorizing because they somehow happen upon "secret knowledge" that, in the absence of any external social pressures, spontaneously becomes apparent to them. Rather, for these lonely people, conspiracy theories are how they project their own unmet emotional needs outward onto the perceived world around them -- as a coping strategy. T…

Very insightful comment. Do you also came across info on how to pull these people (mostly older) out of it?

Separate them from their sources of misinformation by blocking youtube/tiktok/etc. and give them better things to do with their time that fulfill their social and emotional needs for belonging and acceptance (e.g., community volunteering programs, family outings, meetup hobby groups, etc.).

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#83

Post by adleyjulian »

tim333 wrote: post #79
mrtesthah wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind citing any specific passage that you perceive to be "incredibly politicized"? Can you cite one of these "political judgments" from the paper?

I thought the first example they gave: >Conspiracy theories undermined global efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic was maybe ironic. Listening to the people at the start who said it was likely a lab screw up rather than dismissing them as conspiracy theorists might have led to better efforts to contain it. (for those interested here's the then head of the US CDC talking about being blocked from g…

1. I don't see how a zoonotic vs lab leak origin should really impact containment efforts. If it had been a lab leak and Chinese officials knew, I don't see how or why they would have been more open to outside help.

2. The first death from the virus was in January and it was less than 2 weeks later the first confirmed case was in the US. I think we forget how fast this thing went from novel pneumonia in Wuhan to potential world-wide pandemic. Maybe a head start on shutting down the borders would have delayed things a bit, but there would have been zero appetite to shut down everything in January 2020.

3. There absolutely were conspiracy theories that undermined efforts to contain Covid. E.G. the vaccine heralded end times and was the mark of the beast, or people would start dropping dead from the vaccine and it was part of the Great Reset etc. Or that the bans on gatherings were intended to stop religion, Covid didn't even really exist and it was part of a plan to institute a new world order, etc.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#84

Post by adleyjulian »

linearrust wrote: post #28

> Conspiracy theories undermined global efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus during the pandemic What? Which ones? Undermined how? > and were used in the lead-up to the January 6, 2021, raid on the Capitol. I thought a major political party was involved. Not 'conspiracy theorists'. > They lie at the core of political and social polarization Really? Conspiracy theorists lie at the core of political and social polariz…

> What? Which ones? Undermined how?

There's a long list of conspiracy theories about the vaccines. There are chips in there to track people, they're actually sterilizing people for population control, it's the mark of the beast, it's made with aborted fetuses, etc. This impacted vaccination rates. I can't think of any that would have actually increased rates, maybe something about the rich hoarding the vaccines, but that's a stretch.

Also, they measured conspiracy mindset with the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire, which has general questions like "I think there are secret organizations that greatly influence political decisions".

They found that lonely teens, that then got lonelier overtime, had a higher rate of a conspiracy mentality in their 40s. It's hardly surprising but they also controlled for depression and anxiety, and found that loneliness still had a positive correlation with the mentality. I found that part interesting.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#86

Post by greentxt »

incomingpain wrote: post #78
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #68

Why does a submission like this get flagged. One can only guess. Maybe HN users with flagging privileges do not like the conclusions of paper published or summarised in Nature so they flag it in an attmept to stop others from discussing the submission.

Looking at comments: "Kind of a way of turning something obvious on its head and painting it as a negative." "This research smells so bad. It does not read as professional science at all." "The term "Conspiracy Theory" itself needs more scrutiny, IMO." "The question I ask with these studies is "what is a conspiracy?", because there is a big difference between people who think the world is flat and people who think th…

Right. But it's good to know Nature isn't good anymore. Maybe it never was? I always held it in pretty high regard.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#87

Post by nsguy »

roenxi wrote: post #74
nsguy wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree public health officials in certain countries did a poor job. For the most part they were medical professionals who aren't necessarily experts (though some of them were and some countries had expert advisers to set policy). There were many unknowns and it wasn't clear what to optimize for. Public health is tricky and you might be faced with various dilemmas getting people to potentially do something that might…

> I agree public health officials in certain countries did a poor job. For the most part they were medical professionals who aren't necessarily experts (though some of them were and some countries had expert advisers to set policy). There were many unknowns and it wasn't clear what to optimize for. That is a bold claim you might want to walk away from. 3 posts ago you were holding up vaccine conspiracy theorists as p…

Maybe it's a bit too strong. I do think there was a real problem with having medical professional in charge when their discipline and expertise were not the perfect match to the real world problems we were facing.

Their policies might have been based on "settled science" (e.g. research on respiratory diseases from the 70's) but I think that wasn't really the appropriate way to handle things as the pandemic developed. It might have been appropriate for day 1 but officials IMO lacked the ability to adapt to the changing reality.

The actual policies varied a lot between countries which is why I qualified my statement.

At the end of the day, you can be critical without being conspiratorial. I'm open to new information that supports the idea that the way health officials handled the pandemic was optimal but given that different jurisdiction gave conflicting advice so that seems counter evidence.

There are many specific examples that come to mind. If we can't critique the response then there's not going to be any learning. Experts and science are not perfect.

Again, point taken and maybe I'm a bit too strong, but that's what I'm trying to get at.

EDIT: i.e. I've no issue with people that are being critical after examining the evidence. These people are not conspiracy theorists and that process is a healthy part of making progress in science and policy. That's not the same thing as people saying Bill Gates put 4G chips in the vaccines or some other mysterious behind the scenes forces or conspiracies.

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#88

Post by [deleted] »

greentxt wrote: post #86
incomingpain wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at comments: "Kind of a way of turning something obvious on its head and painting it as a negative." "This research smells so bad. It does not read as professional science at all." "The term "Conspiracy Theory" itself needs more scrutiny, IMO." "The question I ask with these studies is "what is a conspiracy?", because there is a big difference between people who think the world is flat and people who think th…

Right. But it's good to know Nature isn't good anymore. Maybe it never was? I always held it in pretty high regard.

[deleted]

Re: Loneliness trajectories are associated with midlife conspiracist worldviews

#90

Post by greentxt »

greentxt wrote: post #86
incomingpain wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at comments: "Kind of a way of turning something obvious on its head and painting it as a negative." "This research smells so bad. It does not read as professional science at all." "The term "Conspiracy Theory" itself needs more scrutiny, IMO." "The question I ask with these studies is "what is a conspiracy?", because there is a big difference between people who think the world is flat and people who think th…

Right. But it's good to know Nature isn't good anymore. Maybe it never was? I always held it in pretty high regard.

I got downvoted but I'd point out two things: the featured "study" is psychology, it would never pass muster in one of the flagship psychology journals-- and that says a lot!

Maybe it's correct in its conclusions. Who knows. The "method" in "scientific method" does all the work. Otherwise all you get are "claims" which some may agree and others disagree with. You can't just make assertions without proof, without operational definitions, etc...

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