Research scholarships

This current project will characterise the traits that make people resilient or vulnerable to unwarranted conspiracy theories, misinformation, disinformation, and slopaganda, as well as the structures of networks of trust and distrust that exacerbate or mitigate the manifestation of these traits.

Combining empirical data collection with philosophical theorising and computerised simulations of large, real-world network structures, the project represents a significant advance in developing potential interventions upon existing epistemic networks. I will:

• analyse epistemic virtues (eg curiosity, openmindedness, intellectual humility) and vices (eg closedmindedness, epistemic insouciance, epistemic arrogance)
• evaluate features of the environment as protective or risk factors that make people especially likely to accept or reject authoritative testimony, unwarranted conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation.

While research in risk communications and media studies has addressed these topics from other perspectives, it has done so without taking account of the rich philosophical literature on both virtue epistemology and social epistemology.

From these two angles – the individual and the network – my project addresses two sub-questions:

• Given the topology of the networks of trust and distrust in which people and artificial agents are located, what sorts of epistemic traits should the people cultivate and avoid, and what sorts of patterns in the artificial agents should be inculcated or eradicated?
• Given people’s actual epistemic traits, which network structures are more likely to promote or obstruct good epistemic outcomes at the individual and social levels?

About the scholarship

The project is structured as a staged, three-pronged effort, and the PhD is expected to choose one of them on which to focus:

This subproject addresses my first question in order to better characterise the prevalence and distribution of intellectual virtues and vices in the Anglophone world, including in Australia.

This will be accomplished by running a large-scale international replication study to validate what I describe as the five-factor structure of epistemic traits:

• openmindedness
• ingroup criticism
• intellectual arrogance
• defensiveness
• sense of intellectual superiority.

This subproject builds on my recent work to assess epistemic health at the level of both nodes-in-networks and networks-as-wholes. I articulate and measure a novel concept: epistemic minimax.

According to the Rawlsian economic minimax principle, the primary goods of society (most easily operationalised as income and wealth) should be distributed in such a way that the least-well-off members of society get the best outcome possible for them.

I contend that certain epistemic goods can be distributed similarly.

This subproject will bridge the gap between big-data description and high-throughput simulation of social dynamics using the Python programming environment.

It takes an ambitious approach to the study of networks of trust and distrust.

Availability

This scholarship is available to eligible candidates to undertake a four-year MRes and PhD program.

Components

The scholarship comprises:

• a tuition fee offset/scholarship
• a living allowance stipend.

The value of each stipend scholarship is $39,700 per annum (full time, indexed) for four years.

How to apply

Before submitting your application, submit an expression of interest to Mark Alfano at mark.alfano@mq.edu.au.