Weaponized Bullshit in Online Environment

Here you can find selected sources regarding my lecture on bullshit, conspiracy theories and their use in information warfare, as presented on Faculty of Social Sciences on Charles University (Department of Security Studies, "Hybrid Warfare" course) in November 2022.

Books:

BUTTER, Michael. The nature of conspiracy theories. Medford, MA: Polity Press, [2020].

SINGER, P. W. a Emerson T. BROOKING. Likewar: the weaponization of social media. Boston: Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018. 

WYLIE, Christopher. Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica a plán na zničení světa. Přeložil Jan KLÍMA. Praha: Dokořán, 2021. Zip (Argo: Dokořán). ISBN 978-80-7363-768-2. 

Selected papers on conspiracy theory research:

WOOD, Michael J., Karen M. DOUGLAS a Robbie M. SUTTON. Dead and Alive. Social Psychological and Personality Science [online]. 2012, 3(6), 767-773 [cit. 2022-11-14]. ISSN 1948-5506. Available at: doi:10.1177/1948550611434786 

PROOIJEN, Jan-Willem van. Psychological benefits of believing conspiracy theories. Current Opinion in Psychology [online]. 2022, 47 [cit. 2022-11-14]. ISSN 2352250X. Available at: doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101352 

ELK, Michiel van. Paranormal believers are more prone to illusory agency detection than skeptics. Consciousness and Cognition [online]. 2013, 22(3), 1041-1046 [cit. 2022-11-14]. ISSN 10538100. Available at: doi:10.1016/j.concog.2013.07.004 

BROTHERTON, Robert, Christopher C. FRENCH a Alan D. PICKERING. Measuring Belief in Conspiracy Theories: The Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale. Frontiers in Psychology [online]. 2013, 4 [cit. 2022-11-14]. ISSN 1664-1078. Available at: doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279 

Selected papers on bullshit: 

PENYCOOK, Gordon et al. On the Reception and Detection of Pseudo-profound Bullshit. Judgment and Decision Making. Vol. 10, No. 6. November 2015, pp. 549-563 Available at: https://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.pdf 

VAN PROOIJEN, Jan‐Willem, Talia COHEN RODRIGUES, Carlotta BUNZEL, Oana GEORGESCU, Dániel KOMÁROMY a André P. M. KROUWEL. Populist Gullibility: Conspiracy Theories, News Credibility, Bullshit Receptivity, and Paranormal Belief. Political Psychology [online]. 2022, 43(6), 1061-1079 [cit. 2022-11-14]. ISSN 0162-895X. Available at: doi:10.1111/pops.12802 

PENNYCOOK, Gordon a David G. RAND. Who falls for fake news? The roles of bullshit receptivity, overclaiming, familiarity, and analytic thinking. Journal of Personality [online]. 2020, 88(2), 185-200 [cit. 2022-11-14]. ISSN 0022-3506. Available at: doi:10.1111/jopy.12476 

Information warfare:

Falsification of History as a Tool of Influence [PDF]

Spread of Russian and Chinese COVID-19 disinformation during the pandemic https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-china-covid-disinformation-campaigns/31590996.html  

COVID-denying groups reorient to pro-Russia disinformation (CZ) https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/odbornik-na-dezinformace-cast-covid-skupin-se-preorientovala-na-podporu-ruska/2174798 

Russian Information Agency (the source of "Moon landing hoax" bullshit article) https://iarex.ru/ 

Bill Gates on "population reduction", original TED talk https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_innovating_to_zero ¨

Additional resources on information warfare: 

Russian reflexive control https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328562833_Russian_Reflexive_Control 

Trolling as a tool of information warfare https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12290-016-0395-5 

"Aquarium Leaks" - report regarding psychological operations in Russia https://www.4freerussia.org/aquarium-leaks-inside-the-gru-s-psychological-warfare-program/ 

Strategy of Internet Research Agency (IRA) in spreading online disinformation https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=senatedocs