Author: TheConversation

By Eli Elster, Doctoral Candidate in Evolutionary Anthropology, University of California, Davis On February 22, 2020, “Mad” Mike Hughes towed a homemade rocket to the Mojave Desert and launched himself into the sky. His goal? To view the flatness of the Earth from space. This was his third attempt, and tragically it was fatal. Hughes crashed shortly after takeoff and died. Hughes’ nickname – Mad Mike – might strike you as apt. Is it not crazy to risk your life fighting for a theory that was disproven in ancient Greece? But Hughes’ conviction, though striking, is not unique. Across...

By Michelle Lynn Kahn, Associate Professor of History, University of Richmond How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted as early as the 1980s and 1990s, and it hasn’t gone away. Decades before artificial intelligence, Telegram, and White Nationalist Nick Fuentes’ livestreams, far-right extremists embraced the early days of home computing and the internet. These new technologies offered them a bastion of free speech and a global platform. They could share propaganda, spew hatred, incite violence, and gain international followers like never before....

By Aaron Mansfield, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, Merrimack College Being from Buffalo means getting to eat some of the best wings in the world. It means scraping snow and ice off your car in frigid mornings. And it means making a lifelong vow to the city’s NFL franchise, the Bills, for better or worse, till death do us part. When I grew up in New York’s second-largest city, my community was bound together by loyalty to a football team that always found new ways to break our hearts. And yet at the start of each NFL season, we...

By Aaron French, Assistant Professor of Information Systems, Kennesaw State University Back in 2008, The Atlantic sparked controversy with a provocative cover story: “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” In that 4,000-word essay, later expanded into a book, author Nicholas Carr suggested the answer was yes, arguing that technology such as search engines were worsening Americans’ ability to think deeply and retain knowledge. At the core of Carr’s concern was the idea that people no longer needed to remember or learn facts when they could instantly look them up online. While there might be some truth to this, search engines...

By Ivis García, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Texas A&M University Picture this … you are looking to buy a place to live. And you have two options. Option A is a beautiful home in California near good schools and job opportunities. But it goes for nearly a million dollars – the median California home sells for US$906,500 – and you’d be paying a mortgage that’s risen 82% since January 2020. Option B is a similar home in Texas, where the median home costs less than half as much: just $353,700. The catch? Option B sits...

By Randy Stein, Associate Professor of Marketing, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Abraham Rutchick, Professor of Psychology, California State University, Northridge Why do some people endorse claims that can easily be disproved? It’s one thing to believe false information, but another to actively stick with something that’s obviously wrong. Our new research, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, suggests that some people consider it a “win” to lean in to known falsehoods. We are social psychologists who study political psychology and how people reason about reality. During the pandemic, we surveyed 5,535 people across eight countries to investigate...