In the present contribution, we examine the link between societal crisis situations and belief in conspiracy theories. Contrary to common assumptions, belief in conspiracy theories has been prevalent ...throughout human history. We first illustrate historical incidents suggesting that societal crisis situations—defined as impactful and rapid societal change that calls established power structures, norms of conduct, or even the existence of specific people or groups into question—have stimulated belief in conspiracy theories. We then review the psychological literature to explain why this is the case. Evidence suggests that the aversive feelings that people experience when in crisis—fear, uncertainty, and the feeling of being out of control—stimulate a motivation to make sense of the situation, increasing the likelihood of perceiving conspiracies in social situations. We then explain that after being formed, conspiracy theories can become historical narratives that may spread through cultural transmission. We conclude that conspiracy theories originate particularly in crisis situations and may form the basis for how people subsequently remember and mentally represent a historical event.
A common assumption is that belief in conspiracy theories and supernatural phenomena are grounded in illusory pattern perception. In the present research we systematically tested this assumption. ...Study 1 revealed that such irrational beliefs are related to perceiving patterns in randomly generated coin toss outcomes. In Study 2, pattern search instructions exerted an indirect effect on irrational beliefs through pattern perception. Study 3 revealed that perceiving patterns in chaotic but not in structured paintings predicted irrational beliefs. In Study 4, we found that agreement with texts supporting paranormal phenomena or conspiracy theories predicted pattern perception. In Study 5, we manipulated belief in a specific conspiracy theory. This manipulation influenced the extent to which people perceive patterns in world events, which in turn predicted unrelated irrational beliefs. We conclude that illusory pattern perception is a central cognitive mechanism accounting for conspiracy theories and supernatural beliefs.
The motor cortex controls skilled arm movement by sending temporal patterns of activity to lower motor centres
. Local cortical dynamics are thought to shape these patterns throughout movement ...execution
. External inputs have been implicated in setting the initial state of the motor cortex
, but they may also have a pattern-generating role. Here we dissect the contribution of local dynamics and inputs to cortical pattern generation during a prehension task in mice. Perturbing cortex to an aberrant state prevented movement initiation, but after the perturbation was released, cortex either bypassed the normal initial state and immediately generated the pattern that controls reaching or failed to generate this pattern. The difference in these two outcomes was probably a result of external inputs. We directly investigated the role of inputs by inactivating the thalamus; this perturbed cortical activity and disrupted limb kinematics at any stage of the movement. Activation of thalamocortical axon terminals at different frequencies disrupted cortical activity and arm movement in a graded manner. Simultaneous recordings revealed that both thalamic activity and the current state of cortex predicted changes in cortical activity. Thus, the pattern generator for dexterous arm movement is distributed across multiple, strongly interacting brain regions.
This comprehensive introduction to the Markov modeling framework describes the underlying theoretical concepts of Markov models as used for sequential data, covering Hidden Markov models and Markov ...chain models. It also presents the techniques necessary to build successful systems for practical applications. In addition, the book demonstrates the actual use of the technology in the three main application areas of pattern recognition methods based on Markov-Models: speech recognition, handwriting recognition, and biological sequence analysis. The book is suitable for experts as well as for practitioners.
Previous research indicates that conspiracy thinking is informed by the psychological imposition of order and meaning on the environment, including the perception of causal relations between random ...events. Four studies indicate that conspiracy belief is driven by readiness to draw implausible causal connections even when events are not random, but instead conform to an objective pattern. Study 1 (N = 195) showed that conspiracy belief was related to the causal interpretation of real‐life, spurious correlations (e.g., between chocolate consumption and Nobel prizes). In Study 2 (N = 216), this effect held adjusting for correlates including magical and non‐analytical thinking. Study 3 (N = 214) showed that preference for conspiracy explanations was associated with the perception that a focal event (e.g., the death of a journalist) was causally connected to similar, recent events. Study 4 (N = 211) showed that conspiracy explanations for human tragedies were favored when they comprised part of a cluster of similar events (vs. occurring in isolation); crucially, they were independently increased by a manipulation of causal perception. We discuss the implications of these findings for previous, mixed findings in the literature and for the relation between conspiracy thinking and other cognitive processes.
Research on competitive dynamics and hypercompetition has demonstrated the importance of firm competitive actions for disrupting industry positions and gaining competitive advantage. The effects of ...competitive actions in disequilibrium environments, such as nascent markets, however, have not been examined. In this paper, we argue that under conditions of high ambiguity, firms can gain competitive advantage from the Gestalt properties present in the sequences of their competitive actions. Such properties, we argue, facilitate investor sensemaking and influence their valuations. Drawing on psychological research on pattern perception and holistic information processing, we investigate the effects of four Gestalt properties—simplicity, predictability, grouping, and motif—on investor valuations of new firms competing in the nascent markets that emerged around the commercialization of the Internet in the mid-1990s. We find support for our arguments that the dynamic properties of action sequences provide firms with advantages and that simplicity, grouping, and motif are associated with increases in the market value of high-ambiguity firms, but not of low-ambiguity ones. Our study advances research on competitive advantage by developing both theory and methods for studying how the dynamic, holistic properties of firms' competitive actions contribute to competitive advantage under varying levels of ambiguity.
We propose that people protect the belief in a controlled, nonrandom world by imbuing their social, physical, and metaphysical environments with order and structure when their sense of personal ...control is threatened. We demonstrate that when personal control is threatened, people can preserve a sense of order by (a) perceiving patterns in noise or adhering to superstitions and conspiracies, (b) defending the legitimacy of the sociopolitical institutions that offer control, or (c) believing in an interventionist God. We also present evidence that these processes of compensatory control help people cope with the anxiety and discomfort that lacking personal control fuels, that it is lack of personal control specifically and not general threat or negativity that drives these processes, and that these various forms of compensatory control are ultimately substitutable for one another. Our model of compensatory control offers insight into a wide variety of phenomena, from prejudice to the idiosyncratic rituals of professional athletes to societal rituals around weddings, graduations, and funerals.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We predicted that experiencing emotions that reflect uncertainty about the world (e.g., worry, surprise, fear, hope), compared to certain emotions (e.g., anger, happiness, disgust, contentment), ...would activate the need to imbue the world with order and structure across a wide range of compensatory measures. To test this hypothesis, three experiments orthogonally manipulated the uncertainty and the valence of emotions. Experiencing uncertain emotions increased defense of government (Experiment 1) and led people to embrace conspiracies and the paranormal (Experiment 2). Self-affirmation eliminated the effects of uncertain emotions on compensatory control (Experiment 3). Across all experiments, the valence of the emotions had no main effects on compensatory control and never interacted with the uncertainty of emotions. These studies establish a link between the experience of emotions and the desire for structure.
•Uncertain emotions activate a need to imbue the world with order and structure.•They increase government defense and belief in conspiracies and the paranormal.•Only the uncertainty of emotions and not their valence affects compensatory control.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 37th Computer Graphics International Conference, CGI 2020, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2020. The conference was held virtually.The 43 ...full papers presented together with 3 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 189 submissions. The papers address topics such as: virtual reality; rendering and textures; augmented and mixed reality; video processing; image processing; fluid simulation and control; meshes and topology; visual simulation and aesthetics; human computer interaction; computer animation; geometric computing; robotics and vision; scientific visualization; and machine learning for graphics.
Packed with intriguing real-world projects as well as theory, Generative AI with Python and TensorFlow 2 enables you to leverage artificial intelligence creatively and generate human-like data in the ...form of speech, text, images, and music.
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