Basic Needs

Internal code: 3.1 Target groups: general public

General description Basic needs comprise of two categories:
 * Psychosocial integration (autonomy, achievement, belonging) - Alexander, 2008
 * Safety, Being Seen & Heard - Van der Kolk, 2014

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Interventions

Impact measurements

Assumptions ''' - (Bor, A. et al. (2021)) The relation between citizens and states has deteriorated while solidarity between citizens has remained nearly unchanged. - (Calvi, C. et al. (2021)) "Our theoretical background frames the belief in and sharing of fake news in the context of individuals' need to resolve uncertainty during a time of heightened anxiety where people may be more vulnerable to fake news. This need has been exacerbated in a global pandemic, where scientific consensus and certainty was particularly elusive in the early days of the outbreak. During events like pandemics, fear-driven and instinctive behaviors activate promptly and people may develop more sensitivity to negative and overall novel information to help resolve uncertainty. This natural inclination toward information seeking may become problematic when sources of information contain misleading or outright false news stories. ... While we know that people acquire information to reduce fear and anxiety, our study provides evidence that fear leads also to sharing information and overestimating pseudo-profound statements."
 * People need to have their basic needs fulfilled in order to function in a society, or at least, in the words of Alexander (2008), "get by".
 * (Bauman, Z. (2007)) “With the state-built and state-serviced defences against existential tremors progressively dismantled, and the arrangements for collective self-defence, such as trade unions and other instruments for collective bargaining, increasingly disempowered by the pressure of market competition that erode the solidarity of the weak – it is now left to individuals to seek, find and practice individual solutions to socially produced troubles, and to try all that through individual, solitary actions, while being equipped with tools and resources that are blatantly inadequate to the task.”
 * Unfortunately, modern society causes (severe) dislocation (Alexander (2008)), it is liquid forcing people to become consumers, scared of falling outside of society (Bauman, Z. (2005)). The only form of agency for people in a liquid society is choice - homo eligens. (Bauman, Z. (2005))
 * People's identities are fragmented, including adolescent identities . This was not always the case.
 * The belief in conspiracy theories starts in adolescence (age of 14) and peaks at the age of 18.
 * People retreat in bubbles of sameness, ever less capable of living together with 'others' (Bauman, Z. (2005)).
 * Lately, even consumerism - Bauman's interpretation of people "getting by" - is under pressure. Democracies do not guarantee stable growth anymore, or stability. (Mounk, Y. (2018)).
 * The moment that even getting by as a consumer is getting out of reach, and people feel no agency or "earned identity", people "are likely to default to an “ascriptive” identity – making their ethnicity, their religion, and their nationality more central to their worldview". Economic spoils become a zero sum game. Populists - with their appeal to a "moral monopoly to representation" - become attractive. (Mounk, Y. (2018)) They represent individuals who feel that their caste is under threat. (Grey, E. on Twitter)
 * (Greenstein, M., & Franklin, N. (2020)) "Anger did not affect either recognition or source accuracy for true details about the initial event, but suggestibility for false details increased with anger. In spite of this increase in source errors (i.e., misinformation acceptance), both confidence in the accuracy of source attributions and decision speed for incorrect judgments also increased with anger."
 * (Aaronovitch, D. (2010)) “There is more than plausible argument to be made that, very often, conspiracy theories take root among the casualties of political, social or economic change. More particularly there is something of a pattern in which overarching theories are formulated by the politically defeated and taken up by the socially defeated, deriving ‘from the concrete experience of modernity by losers who will not go softly into the night but instead rage against it’.” [Quote by Stephen Eric Bronner. A rumor about the Jews]
 * Dutch Chief Public Prosecutor Michiel Zwinkels states on those influenced by conspiracy thinking: "Followers are often socially isolated and spend a lot of time on the internet." (Original in Dutch)
 * (Liekefett, L. et al. (2021)) "... increases in conspiracy beliefs predicted subsequent increases in conspiracy beliefs, suggesting a self-reinforcing circle. We conclude that conspiracy beliefs likely do not have beneficial consequences, but may even reinforce the negative experience of anxiety, uncertainty aversion, and existential threat."
 * Initiators play into existing fissures in democracies
 * The polarization between groups is rather affective, moral than ideological. Groups see each other rather as ignorant than as evil. Polarization is the biggest in the USA.
 * (Druckman, J. et al. (2022) ) "Affective polarization—the tendency of ordinary partisans to dislike and distrust those from the other party—is a defining feature of contemporary American politics. High levels of out-party animus stem, in part, from misperceptions of the other party’s voters. Specifically, individuals misestimate the ideological extremity and political engagement of typical out-partisans. When partisans are asked about “Democrats” or the “Republican Party,” they bring to mind stereotypes of engaged ideologues and, hence, express contempt for the other party. The reality, however, is that such individuals are the exception rather than the norm. We show that when partisans learn that reality, partisan animus falls sharply; partisans do not have much animus toward the typical member of the other party. Our results suggest antidotes for vitiating affective polarization but also complicate understandings of good citizenship."
 * Effects of the pandemic:
 * (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter) "The sad thing about disinformation is that once the truth comes out, the damage has already been done. People have already been misled, radicalized & believe lies to a point where their hatred has brewed to violence."
 * (Jankowicz, N. (2020)) “This ... is the ideal outcome for Russia. American democracy – once a shining city on a hill – is weak and crumbling. The debate, dissent, and protest, on which the United States was founded are increasingly foreign concepts. Corruption, once kept in check by an active media and engaged electorate, reaches to the highest levels of government. Consumed by problems at home, the United States is less engaged abroad. And the Kremlin points at the failings of our democratic system to justify repressions and a broader embrace of authoritarianism inside and outside its borders.”
 * (Pew Research Center, 18.2.2021) "Asked to consider what life will be like in 2025 in the wake of the outbreak of the global pandemic and other crises in 2020, some 915 innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers and activists responded." On disinformation [n]otable shares of these respondents foresee significant change that will: "multiply the spread of misinformation as authoritarians and polarized populations wage warring information campaigns with their foes. Many respondents said their deepest worry is over the seemingly unstoppable manipulation of public perception, emotion and action via online disinformation – lies and hate speech deliberately weaponized in order to propagate destructive biases and fears. They worry about significant damage to social stability and cohesion and the reduced likelihood of rational deliberation and evidence-based policymaking."
 * An alternative/ additional view can be found under Social Psychology Assumptions. Both views reject Fact-Checking/ Report Disinformation/ Quality Label Assumptions that cognitive grounds are sufficient for recipients to embrace misinformation/ disinformation.Dissemination is a different step.

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