The Democratic Containment of Fake News and Bad Beliefs

Democratic theory typically assumes citizens as rational agents. However, there is a growing philosophical literature on the cognitive failures of the democratic public. Citizens may fail to identify reliable sources of information and fall prey to misinformation. This phenomenon has become evident over the last few years, when “fake news” went viral on social media. Moreover, citizens holding “bad beliefs” may resist fact-checking and debunking, keeping beliefs that conflict with available evidence. They may deny credibility to scientific expertise and scientific evidence. A clear example is the persistent denial of anthropogenic climate change.

To tackle the spread of misinformation in liberal democracies, several countermeasures have been invoked and increasingly applied, including institutional speech restrictions and social media platforms self-regulation. Such responses risk undermining citizens’ liberty and autonomy and being unduly paternalistic. Countermeasures to ensure competent democratic deliberation may raise similar worries about paternalism. Aside from those involving electoral reforms towards epistocracy, possible countermeasures may attribute an increasing weight to experts in policymaking. Indeed, experts’ advisory boards may counterbalance the failures in knowledge formation and reasoning among the electorate. Yet, despite their scientific competence, experts themselves are not completely immune to cognitive traps and biases. Thus, besides legitimacy worries, the role of experts in policymaking may also raise epistemic worries. 
Epistemic failures among citizens of liberal democracies need to be tackled. However, normative theorists should provide guidance in ensuring that policy responses are compatible with the basic values of liberal democracies themselves, namely freedom, autonomy and equality.

26 October

2:00 pm Welcome
Livia De Giovanni Luiss University
Gianni Riotta Luiss University

2:30 pm Democratization of Expertise?
Cathrine Holst University of Oslo
Discussant Enrico Biale University of Piemonte Orientale

4:00 pm Break

16:20 Session I
Chair: Laura Santi Amantini

The Collective Underpinnings of Epistemic Failures
Säde Hormio University of Helsinki

Preposterous Fake News, the Breach of Democratic Trust and the Civic Virtue of Reasonableness
Elisabetta Galeotti University of Piemonte Orientale
Federica Liveriero University of Pavia

5:40 pm Session II

Social Evidence Tampering and the Epistemology of Content Moderation
Keith Harris Ruhr University Bochum

Socially Adaptive Beliefs Foster the Emergence of Minorities of Contrarians. An Agent-Based Modelling Approach To Bad Beliefs in Epistemic Communities
Matteo Michelini Eindhoven University of Technology-Ruhr University Bochum

27 October

9:30 am Session III
Chair: Corrado Fumagalli

Public Credibility Disfunction and Unreliable, Unsafe Political Beliefs
Carline Klijnman University of Köln

How Misinformation Amplifies Inequality: A Focus on Anti-Immigrant Fake News
Laura Santi Amantini University of Piemonte Orientale

10:50 am Break

11:10 am Session IV
Chair: Federica Liveriero

Believe It or Not: An Empirical Study on Political Fake News Sharing
Jacopo Marchetti University of Piemonte Orientale
Marco Novarese University of Piemonte Orientale

Uncertainty and Fake News: An Experimental Study on the Strategic Use of Fake News in Belief Formation
Irene Maria Buso University of Bologna
Margherita Benzi University of Piemonte Orientale
Marco Novarese University of Piemonte Orientale
Giacomo Sillari Luiss University

12:30 pm Lunch

1:45 pm Session V
Chair: Valeria Ottonelli

Epistemic Environmentalism and Autonomy: The Case of Conceptual Engineering
Eve Kitsik University of Vienna

How Security Organisations and Authorities Combat False Information on Social Media and What This Means for Democracy – A Case Study of Germany
Luzia Sievi University of Tubingen

3:05 pm Measuring Misbelief
Neil Levy University of Oxford
Chair: Ian Carter
Discussant: Gianfranco Pellegrino Luiss University

Registration
 

Workshop realised with the contribution of the Italian Ministry of University and Research as part of the call PRIN 2017 published with DD n. 3728 on 27 December 2017, PRIN project 2017, Deceit and Self-Deception. How We Should Address Fake News and Other Cognitive Failures of the Democratic Public, Codice Cineca 2017S4PPM4_004, National Coordinator Prof. Anna Elisabetta Galeotti.