Sensationalism and Availability Cascades: Escaping them via the Internet

Sensationalism and Availability Cascades

While writing my recent post about Simplistic Assumptions producing Sensational ‘Scientific’ Publications, I began thinking about the prominence of sensationalism in the media more broadly.

Mainstream press coverage, and propaganda, shape opinions

Yes, I made that sub-heading redundant, on purpose. The mainstream press doesn’t give nearly as much attention to real dangers as to whatever has been pre-selected. Ask yourself, by whom?

Availability Cascades

Repeated and pervasive press coverage of selected topics creates what Daniel Kahneman, author of the brilliant Thinking, Fast and Slow calls an Availability Cascade. The fast-thinking mechanism in the human mind tends to recall whatever has been made readily available by repeated stimuli. The slower-thinking mechanism responsible for critical thinking, is engaged only rarely, when we are provoked to use it. That’s why, if you want to convince someone of something, a good story (anecdotal evidence) will in most cases succeed better than statistical evidence, no matter how solid. It helps if the story is familiar, and therefore to some degree already accepted.

Here are just a few examples:

Global Warming and CO2 get so much more press than the alterations to the Global Nitrogen Cycle and Ocean Acidification, both of which are scientifically more certain and more likely to directly and adversely affect life on our planet

As I detailed in my previous post, much more than the carbon cycle and CO2, human activities have clearly altered the global cycle of nitrogen, an element essential to all life (that’s why it’s a major ingredient in fertilizers), and increased the acidity of the near-surface ocean. It’s fairly obvious that changing the supply of bioavailable nitrogen is already having dramatic effects than the small changes in atmospheric CO2. Furthermore, of the likely effects of increasing CO2, acidification of the near-surface ocean, where the base of the marine food web lives, will most likely be at least as important to humans (I suspect much more) than global warming.
But it would take a great deal more effort to understand, and then explain, either of those two topics than to continue harping on global warming, which is already so conveniently familiar to viewers everywhere.

Mass Shootings get far more publicity than many other causes of death, which in fact kill far more people </h3

A more dramatic example is the grave concern that many people in the United States feel over mass shootings and ‘gun violence’, which are featured prominently in the ‘news’, both on television and in print. There is much more concern and earnest desire to do something about those than to do something about, for example, medical errors or drug over-doses (more involving FDA-approved than illegal drugs, by the way), which are just two examples among various things that kill far more people than gunshot wounds.

The US ‘National Center for Health Statistics’ published this list of the top 10 causes of death in the US for 2014. Murder by any cause doesn’t even show up. It’s far below 10th place even, because it accounts for less than 1% of deaths in all 50 States, again, according to the US government.

Bird Flu

Influenza of many variants has been and will continue to kill people. This was nothing new. In any case, worrying about would do more harm than good. Well, except for those selling ‘news’, or flu shots, or demanding more funding for the government to protect us from it.

The Zika virus, which so far has killed only 1 person in the US, has recently gotten far more attention than infectious diseases that kill many thousands per year

Showing photos of mosquitos, which are unappealing and even frightening to many people, makes this one quite effective.

It’s more than just telling people what they want to hear

I used to think that the ‘news media’ simply presented whatever sells. But, the huge popularity of, for example, live webcams trained on cute kittens, belies that. Yes, we humans will respond to fearmongering, but we will also seek out the peaceful and relaxing, and even pay lots of money for it, as when going on vacations.

Now it’s clear to me that those who control the media actively choose to promote fear, and that this serves the interests of those who control governments. They promote one scary thing after another: Mad Cow Disease, Terrorists flying airplanes, bird flu, shoe bombers, mass shootings, Global Warming, the Zika virus, … just stay tuned if you want to see a few more.

Has the Internet disrupted their Cascade of Fear?

Not entirely, but it has I think done a great deal of good by allowing individuals to seek out the content that they enjoy, rather than more passively watching TV. I know that since I mostly stopped following mainstream media several years ago I feel more at ease. I hope that many others are also taking refuge from the deluge of fear-mongering propaganda.

The internet in general allows us more choices in the kind of content we want to see. Steemit in particular goes beyond that by allowing us to reward those who provide content that we value, in a way that mainstream media does not.

At least I’m quite happy living without a TV for over ten years!

S. Lan Smith

Kamakura, Japan

September 8, 2016