Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Media and Technology Ciarán Mc Mahon

Have you ever shared a link online without reading the article? How often do you challenge people in face-to-face conversations about the truthfulness of what they're telling you? Does the design of social media platforms affect what we believe? How exactly should we deal with politicians who constantly lie to the public?

Dealing with these questions and many more, in the first episode of this podcast series, I interview Prof Norbert Schwarz. Prof Schwarz is Provost Professor in the Department of Psychology and the USC Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a co-director of the USC Dornsife Mind and Society Center.

He is co-author, with Madeline Jalbert, of Chapter 1, “When (fake) news feels true: Intuitions of truth and the acceptance and correction of misinformation” in Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Media and Technology.

This book currently has a 20% discount on the Routledge website - see here https://www.routledge.com/Psychological-Insights-for-Understanding-COVID-19-and-Media-and-Technology/Mahon/p/book/9780367640064

(This chapter originally appeared in the book, The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation, which you can read more about here https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429295379

This episode reveals that the psychology of fake news is more profound and complex than many of us realise, yet at the same time, there is one simple trick you can start practising today which will help stem the tide of misinformation. Enjoy and stay tuned for the next episode!

Hi my name is Ciarán Mc Mahon and welcome to Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Media and Technology.

This podcast is based around the book of the same name I've edited which has just been published by Routledge.

Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Media and Technology draws together chapters as they originally appeared before COVID-19 descended on the world.

Over the course of the following episodes, I'll be speaking with the authors of those chapters. I'll be asking them about their work and how it can help us to understand the complicated situation we find ourselves in today, in the year that is 2020 - a year I'm sure none of us will ever forget.

This book is particularly important because its topic area is one which was already complicated before the pandemic hit us - the interaction of human psychology with the media and technologies which have come to dominate our lives. That means everything from social media to algorithms to artificial intelligence and so on - this was already very complicated in 2019. And now, with the pandemic, and so many people trying to work from home, as well as study at home, and socialise remotely - not forgetting constantly trying to get accurate and reliable information about this virus - well, it's gotten a lot more complicated.

So in this podcast, that means we're going to be talking about lots of really important topics in the cyber psychological space. We're going to be talking about fake news, social media, conspiracy theories, belonging, online emotional lives and relationship formation, and identity. Are we still the same people we were before all this happened?

I am looking forward to speaking with these highly regarded international experts and bringing their insights to you. It promises to be an enlightening and important series of discussions!

Hi my name is Ciarán Mc Mahon and welcome to Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Media and Technology. This podcast is based around the book,  Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Media and Technology, which draws together chapters as they originally appeared before COVID-19 descended on the world.

Over the course of the following episodes, I'll be speaking with the authors of those chapters. So that means we're going to be talking about about fake news, social media, conspiracy theories, belonging, online emotional lives and relationship formation, and identity. Are we still the same people we were before all this happened? 

I'm looking forward to speaking with these highly regarded international experts and bringing their insights to you.