Dr. Todd Rose

one of the things that got a big boost on this was the push to defund the police.

And if you remember that movement, there's a real moral imperative for wanting people to be safe and not having police overreach and that kind of thing.

That's fair.

But suddenly this idea that the answer is defund the police gained steam.

It was always by a fringe group, but it got amplified on social media, including with some help from some bots.

And enough Democrats thought this is

Like, we have private opinion data on this.

The overwhelming majority never believed it, but they thought the majority of Democrats did.

So when they get called for polling, do you support this?

You know what the right answer is.

But then, of course, that illusion already burst because in Minneapolis, they put it to a vote, and it turns out supermajority of people did not want that, right?

But you look on the right, we actually have private opinion data with respect to the 2020 election.

amongst Republicans.

So I can tell you point blank that if you ask Republicans in public, you'll get close to 60% say that the election was rigged.

But in private, it's about 14%.

So the problem is, is that we're all self-silencing or relying about our views to belong to our group and thinking that we're not causing any problems.

But in fact, once you understand the concept of a collective illusion and how it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, our silence and our complicity

really does great harm for ourselves and for society.

For sure.

And that's the power that fringe groups wield, right, is the threat of social sanctioning.