How Voters Can Escape From Information Cocoons
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Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- In 2002, New York Universitypolitical scientist Russell Hardin wrote a brilliant essaycalled “The Crippled Epistemology of Extremism.” Hardincontended that many extremists, including terrorists, are notstupid, insane or badly educated.
The real problem is that their information comes from asharply limited set of sources, all of which are supportive oftheir extremist beliefs. Many extremists listen only to oneanother. They live in self-reinforcing information cocoons.Their “crippled epistemology” can lead to utterly baseless, butfirmly held, convictions (and sometimes even violence).