mat marques, ph.d.
@mdmarques.com
bicycles, coffee, and social psychology. researches the causes and consequences of #conspiracytheories he/him. woiworung land. https://mdmarques.com
"In the face of a clear and present danger to press freedom and Australian democracy, two of the most important newspapers in the country cannot find it in themselves to call One Nation’s behaviour what it is: tyrannical."
Media and political complacency is letting Pauline Hanson re-write the rules on accountability
The media have the power to make Hanson’s tyrannical attitudes and behaviour a central issue, and their failure to use this power has only emboldened her.
theconversation.com
some quotes from @snurb.info and me in this solid article as to why we're once again talking about 15-minute cities as a #conspiracytheory
ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 23h agoOne Nation's new Victorian leader promoted '15-minute city' conspiracy theory
Why do people believe conspiracy theories? Research points to unmet needs for certainty, control, and belonging. My own research suggests that perceived victimhood is another key factor. medium.com/@m.j.faccian...
What Makes Someone Believe a Conspiracy Theory?
A massive new meta-analysis concludes that certainty, security, and belonging play a major role, and my own research finds that perceived…
medium.com
How long before this garbage take from the CDC poisons AI models?
Alicia Ault@aliciaault.bsky.social · 2w agoCDC has updated its vaccine safety pages. Now says: "The claim 'vaccines do not cause autism' is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism." Whoa #EpiSky #pediatrics #NeuroSky #PsychSky
Dr Gregory emphasised the dangers of putting any metallic device, like a phone, into a microwave, calling it "not a sensible idea".
Conspiracy theories about AusAlert test spreading online
From wrapping your phone in foil to secret phones, ABC NEWS Verify takes a look into some of these false claims and real concerns about AusAlert to try to answer a few questions.
abc.net.au
RFK Jr. asked the National Institute of Health to dedicate $5 billion (!) to finding a link between vaccines and autism. "That would have dedicated more than a tenth of the NIH’s annual budget to investigating a hypothesis already refuted by scientists worldwide."
Inside RFK Jr.’s push to dismantle decades of U.S. vaccine policy
Insider accounts reveal the scale of the health secretary's ambitions to curb childhood immunizations and unearth a link between vaccines and autism.
reuters.com
This sense that “everyone is using it” goes a long way toward explaining AI’s rapid spread, even among students who are well aware of its shortcomings. Social-norms research consistently shows that people tend to match their behavior to what they think others are doing. So, once AI use feels normal…
AI and Critical Thinking
Generative AI is enabling students to avoid the friction of learning—the struggle to synthesize, organize, and articulate ideas that is central to the educational process.
aaup.org
absolutely fascinating story about missing scientists and the 1977 show Alternative 3 (with music by Eno!) h/t @srhastraea.bsky.social
The missing scientists at the centre of a UFO conspiracy
Are the disappearances or deaths of eleven US scientists really linked in a nefarious plot? Or just a conspiracy theory with roots in a bizarre broadcast that rocked Britain in the 1970s?
theguardian.com
“When it [landed], there was fire and there was noise and it flamed the whole way down. Everybody saw it,” she says. The Elder explains it came from Bunjil, the creator often depicted as a wedge-tailed eagle. “He sent down a fire rock to frighten the s**t out of everyone and make them behave,”.
Why one of our greatest scientific discoveries is in a UK gift shop
The fight to claim a 3.5-tonne space rock didn't just kickstart a publicity battle that divided an empire — it also left a gaping hole in culture. Centuries on, the question remains: Who owned it?
abc.net.au
a clear and concise writeup from @drdanieljolley.bsky.social to the UK parliament on #conspiracytheories and how to spot them. also includes some evidence based approaches and limitations. post.parliament.uk/conspiracy-t...
Conspiracy theories: What they are and how to spot them
Conspiracy theories can have social and political consequences, but why do people believe them and what conversational techniques work to address them?
post.parliament.uk
Humor’s secret sauce: Coherent incongruency. 🧵1/4 New research with @drew-gorenz.bsky.social #SocialPsych #CogSci #Humor J Exp Soc Psych; no paywall until Aug 27 authors.elsevier.com/a/1nOzR51f8%...
New paper out in Global Environmental Change. Across 106 countries, where institutions are stronger, people hold businesses more responsible for cutting emissions. They look to government where institutions are very weak or strong, and to individuals where these are moderate. doi.org/10.1016/j.gl...
flashbacks to the time I suggested to the family, oh hey let's go climb a tree, then realised I didn't really enjoy heights about 10m up while our daughter was speeding up ahead www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07...
Iconic Gloucester Tree reopens after three-year closure
Tourism operators are celebrating the reopening of the southern WA landmark, the Gloucester Tree, with visitors making the 37-metre climb to its peak for the first time since its closure three years a...
abc.net.au
add it to the list of the tsunami of misinformation and AI slop that illustrates why piecemeal interventions at the user end fail to address the volume, velocity, and veracity of content coming out of social media companies
Doctor Nurse@mattnurse.com · last mo.Fake news is back baby. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06...
so much joy www.bbc.com/sport/footba...
World Cup 2026: Cape Verde fans react to their goal against Uruguay live on BBC News
During a live BBC News broadcast, reporter Paul Njie interviews a Cape Verde fan when the country suddenly scores its first ever World Cup goal against Uruguay in the 2026 World Cup.
bbc.com
“Computational (…) cognitive science (…) can only flourish if we (a) do not confuse AI systems for minds or theories, (b) do not confuse machine learning for the scientific method, and (c) understand that our computational models can track only the scope and limits of our understanding.”
Iris van Rooij 💭@irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 2mo agoPublished version now available in Current Directions in Psychological Science: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
so proud of this young Aussie team. it's the only team sport I get behind, putting aside (most) all the social identity stuff when it comes to a super ordinate national identity. go socceroos!
ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 2mo agoWorld Cup quick hits, Australia vs Türkiye, Nestory Irankunda's goal, Pat Beach's save
privileged to be a part of the Australian Science Media Centre's science misinformation symposium here at UTS Sydney
'White victimhood' is a powerful mobilizer - again. @behaviourresuk.bsky.social @ukri.org onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Do metascience's assumptions hold up? Join us August 13 at 4pm (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra time / GMT + 10) for a talk from @markrubin.bsky.social events.humanitix.com/questioning-...
Questioning Some Metascience Assumptions, with Mark Rubin
Do the assumptions of metascience hold up to close scrutiny?
events.humanitix.com
Hey folks, I'm starting to think AI might be a tad problematic for the integrity of science publishing! A study published as Correspondence in @thelancet.com found 4,046 fabricated references across 2810 papers, presumably generated by AI By @bruceylee.bsky.social www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...
Fabricated Citations Found In Over 2,800 Biomedical Journal Articles
A Lancet correspondence described how over a three-year period, 4,046 references in 2,810 published scientific journal articles had been fabricated, many likely by AI.
forbes.com
Nine Theses for a Theory of System Justification Chapter by @johnjost.bsky.social and Jojanneke van der Toorn doi.org/10.1093/oso/... #SocialPsyc
www.theguardian.com/environment/... “Magpies can recognise human faces ... and voices “They form relationships with people. They are nice to people who are nice to them,” says emeritus Prof Gisela Kaplan, of the Uni of New England, who literally wrote the book on the Australian magpie’s behaviour.”
A magpie can recognise you – and four other fun facts about Australia’s most often-spotted bird
The feathered friend was recorded in half of the 153,000 surveys in BirdLife Australia’s Aussie Bird Count
theguardian.com
![A cropped screenshot of an article section titled "Gary Larson cartoon incident" from a Tumblr page. The text describes a controversy involving a Far Side cartoon and Jane Goodall.
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Gary Larson cartoon incident
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In 1987 Gary Larson published a Far Side cartoon of two chimpanzees grooming, in which one discovers a blonde hair and says, "Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?"[127] The Jane Goodall Institute called the cartoon an "atrocity" in a letter drafted by its lawyers to Larson and his syndicate. Goodall, who was in Africa at the time, later found the cartoon amusing.[128]
She went on to name it her favourite depiction of herself in pop culture.[129] Larson offered profits from sales of a shirt featuring the cartoon to the Jane Goodall Institute.[130]
Goodall wrote the preface to The Far Side Gallery 5, detailing her version of the controversy.[131] She praised Larson's creative ideas, which often compare and contrast the behaviour of humans and animals.
In 1988 Larson visited Goodall's research facility in Tanzania.[128] While there, he was attacked by a chimpanzee named Frodo.[127][132]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qdtwslusias4dnfmqydvudsq/bafkreiab4xelozcgki2mm2n3wwq5vdhbvve7v76enl6wbonavz6gjc2p7u)
