Our Seminars & Workshops

Human beliefs follow complex flows. Our beliefs influence our social communities and these in turn influence what we believe next. Are these flows predictable and can we identify them? In this talk I describe a network and complex systems approach to identifying gateway beliefs among conspiracy theorists. This work is based on a data set from 1000 people in the US self-reporting on 39 conspiracies. I develop a distinctive belief framework to more strongly connect individuals with more discriminating beliefs, and produce models of belief change that make empirical predictions about what beliefs change most and which beliefs make people most susceptible to change. This is a general framework that produces compelling representations of flocking ideas.