112. Gordon Pennycook: From Carrot River to Cornell, misinformation, and reducing conspiracy beliefs

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Gordon Pennycook is an Associate Professor at Cornell University. We talk about his upbringing in rural Northern Canada, how he got into academia, and his work on misinformation: why people share it and what can be done about it.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith.
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Timestamps

0:00:00: Straight outta Carrot River: From Northern Canada to publishing in Nature

0:37:01: Exploration vs focusing on one topic: finding your research topic

0:48:57: A sense of having made it

0:54:17: Why apply reasoning research to religion?

0:59:45: Starting working on misinformation

1:08:20: Defining misinformation, disinformation, and fake news

1:15:52: Social media, the consumption of news, and Bayesian updating

1:24:48: Reasons for why people share misinformation

1:35:57: Are social media companies listening to Pennycook et al?

1:38:19: Using AI to change conspiracy beliefs

1:44:59: A book or paper more people should read

1:46:33: Something Gordon wishes he'd learnt sooner

1:48:12: Advice for PhD students/postdocs
Podcast links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
BlueSky: https://geni.us/pod-bsky

Gordon's links

Website: https://geni.us/pennycook_web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/pennycook-scholar
BlueSky: https://geni.us/pennycook-bsky

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar

References

Costello, Pennycook & Rand (2024). Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI. Science.

Dawkins (2006). The God Delusion.

MacLeod, ... & Ozubko (2010). The production effect: delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.

Nowak & Highfield (2012). Supercooperators: Altruism, evolution, and why we need each other to succeed.

Pennycook, ... & Fugelsang (2012). Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief. Cognition.

Pennycook, Fugelsang & Koehler (2015). What makes us think? A three-stage dual-process model of analytic engagement. Cognitive Psychology.

Pennycook, Cheyne, Barr, Koehler & Fugelsang (2015). On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit. Judgment and Decision making.

Pennycook & Rand (2019). Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning. Cognition.

Pennycook & Rand (2021). The psychology of fake news. Trends in cognitive sciences.

Rand (2016). Cooperation, fast and slow: Meta-analytic evidence for a theory of social heuristics and self-interested deliberation. Psychological Science.

Stanovich (2005). The robot's rebellion: Finding meaning in the age of Darwin.

Tappin, Pennycook & Rand (2020). Thinking clearly about causal inferences of politically motivated reasoning: Why paradigmatic study designs often undermine causal inference. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.

Thompson, Turner & Pennycook (2011). Intuition, reason, and metacognition. Cognitive Psychology.

Chapters

1. Straight outta Carrot River: From Northern Canada to publishing in Nature (00:00:00)

2. Exploration vs focusing on one topic: finding your research topic (00:37:01)

3. A sense of having made it (00:48:57)

4. Why apply reasoning research to religion? (00:54:17)

5. Starting working on misinformation (00:59:45)

6. Defining misinformation, disinformation, and fake news (01:08:20)

7. Social media, the consumption of news, and Bayesian updating (01:15:52)

8. Reasons for why people share misinformation (01:24:48)

9. Are social media companies listening to Pennycook et al? (01:35:57)

10. Using AI to change conspiracy beliefs (01:38:19)

11. A book or paper more people should read (01:44:59)

12. Something Gordon wishes he'd learnt sooner (01:46:33)

13. Advice for PhD students/postdocs (01:48:12)

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