Module POL3267 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL3267: Misinformation, Misperceptions and Conspiracy Theories
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
While the specific syllabus plan will change depending on both the most recent research and who is teaching the module, the following broad topics (1-2 weeks per topic) should be expected, with the possibility of additional topics also covered:
- How prevalent in misinformation? How do we identify good information from bad information?
- Who consumes misinformation (or “fake news”)? What are the primary vectors by which misinformation spreads in society? What are the correlates of consuming misinformation, and how is this information consumed? What factors are associated with people choosing to spread misinformation?
- Are interventions capable of stopping the spread of misinformation, or how people process information that is of dubious quality? What is the current state-of-the-art in effective interventions?
- How prevalent are misperceptions in the public? What do misperceptions (and their persistence) tell us about the health of public discourse and democracy? How are misperceptions related to motivated reasoning? Why are some people more accurate in their factual beliefs than others?
- Can misperceptions be corrected? If so, what are best practices for correcting misperceptions? Can journalistic fact-checking stop help voters and consumers, and stop the spread of misinformation?
- How prevalent are conspiracy beliefs? What factors associated with believing in conspiracy theories? How (easily) does conspiracy ideation spread?
While not a specific topic, a companion theme to the broad topics and questions above is how the answers may vary across different countries. While most research in this area is conducted with data from the United States, we will also include data from additional countries to better understand to which these are universal problems, or whether they are specifically rooted in the particular political culture and institutions of the United States.
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activities | 22 | 2 hour weekly seminars with a mix of short formal lectures, student led seminar, and collective discussion |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | Preparing for seminars: reading and research |
| Guided Independant Study | 78 | Completing assessment tasks: reading, research and writing |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
- Douglas, K. M., Uscinski, J. E., Sutton, R. M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C. S., & Deravi, F. (2019). Understanding conspiracy theories. Political Psychology, 40, 3-35.
- Flynn, D., B. Nyhan and J. Reifler (2017). The nature and origins of misperceptions: understanding false and unsupported beliefs about politics. Political Psychology38 (S1): 127–150.
- Guess, Andrew M., Michael Lerner, Benjamin Lyons, Jacob M. Montgomery, Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler, and Neelanjan Sircar. (2020) A digital media literacy intervention increases discernment between mainstream and false news in the United States and India. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences117, no. 27: 15536-15545.
- Guess, Andrew, Jonathan Nagler, and Joshua Tucker. Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook. Science advances5, no. 1 (2019): eaau4586.
- Jerit, Jennifer, and Yangzi Zhao. "Political misinformation." Annual Review of Political Science23 (2020): 77-94.
- Uscinski, J.E., 2018. Conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
