Mar 04, 2019
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Prospiracy Theories
Scott Alexander introduces 'prospiracy theories', positive conspiracy-style memes designed to spread true and beneficial information, in response to the rapid spread of conspiracy theories on social media.
Longer summary
Scott Alexander responds to comments on his previous post about conspiracy theories spreading faster than debunkings on Facebook. He presents a creative solution by creating 'prospiracy theories' - positive, uplifting conspiracy-style memes designed to spread true and beneficial information. The post includes four image examples of these prospiracy theories, covering topics like the benefits of exercise, the importance of sleep, the value of reading, and the positive impact of kindness. These images mimic the style of conspiracy theory memes but promote factual, beneficial information instead.
Shorter summary
Recurring tags:
creative writing (83),
social media (42),
conspiracy theories (32),
cognitive biases (18),
sleep (11),
memes (3),
information spread (2),
exercise (2),
kindness (2)
[Title from this unrelated story or this unrelated essay]
Last week I wrote about how conspiracy theories spread so much faster on Facebook than debunkings of those same theories. A few commenters chimed in to say that of course this was true, the conspiracy theories had evolved into an almost-perfect form for exploiting cognitive biases and the pressures of social media. Debunkings and true beliefs couldn’t copy that process, so they were losing out.
This sounded like a challenge, so here you go:
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