Dan Williams

1 month ago | psychiatrymargins.com | Awais Aftab |Dan Williams

The legitimacy of scientific conclusions and medical diagnoses is a product of social coordination, a set of situated practices, and the more rigorous and transparent these practices are, the more confidence we have in their validity. Science does not happen on its own; facts do not speak for themselves. It is common for the “all-too-human processes” to be erased when scientific results are presented to the public.

Jan 11, 2025 | conspicuouscognition.com | Dan Williams

In trying to make sense of recent political events and trends—whether polarisation, populism, radicalisation, collapsing trust in institutions, or anything else—there is no explanation more alluring to pundits than “social media”. The explanation’s attractions are obvious. First, it's difficult to believe that such a profound change in communication technology could fail to have enormous consequences.

Dec 1, 2024 | conspicuouscognition.com | Dan Williams

A recent articleby Kai Kupferschmidt explores “the five biggest challenges facing misinformation research.” The first challenge focuses on how to define misinformation, which “matters because it is the first step in determining how pervasive misinformation is and how much impact it has.” When misinformation research exploded in prominence in 2016 after Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, much of the focus was on fabricated news stories published by disreputable websites (“fake news”).

Nov 16, 2024 | conspicuouscognition.com | Dan Williams

There is no such thing as paranoia. Your worst fears can come true at any moment. — Hunter S. ThompsonParanoia—the unfounded suspicion that others are deliberately trying to harm you—pervades human experience. Most dramatically, paranoid (or “persecutory”) delusions are the most common symptom of psychosis, that profound "loss of contact with reality" characteristic of various psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Nov 3, 2024 | conspicuouscognition.com | Dan Williams

“I believe that we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country, but unfortunately, it’s not the threat to democracy Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about. It is the threat of censorship!” - J.D. VanceIn recent years, there has been a heated culture war over online misinformation, censorship, and free speech.