Wes Regan

beliefs and discourse and oftentimes with the goal of undermining our trust in democratic institutions or each other for that matter.

And I actually specialize mostly in how conspiracy theory beliefs as a form of misinformation or sometimes disinformation can undermine discussions on urban change and what's happening in communities and make it difficult for urban planners to go in and have meaningful discussions about what's happening in cities with people.

Yeah, or to undermine trust in rigorously tested vaccines or to undermine trust in Canada's healthcare system or to some sort of agenda that is going to have a negative impact on society.

And trust is an important part of what keeps a democratic society functioning.

Trust in each other, a belief that our neighbors are not, you know...

craven, awful, immoral people, but also want to see what's good for the country, even if they might have a different idea of what the policy might be for that thing, or trust in scientific expertise or other sorts of technical expertise, which we rely on because we can't individually make sense of everything.

We have to have trusted sources.

And this is often where I think social media influencers and content creators really muddy the waters in terms of what we can believe when we come in contact with information online.

Yeah, there's definitely, there's an affective quality to this.

So, you know, we don't just think rationally when we're faced with, you know, information.

We also have bodily feelings and intuition, you know, emotions that are involved in how we process that information.

And there's definitely, you know, beta endorphins or other, you know, chemicals that are being released, you know, when we're seeing something, we read something, we share something.

And so, yes, oftentimes having a community of belief, for example, with conspiracy theories and having people that will share things that continue to validate a worldview that you hold that might be inherently distrustful towards pharmaceuticals or government elites or whoever it might be.

And that is that can be a very good feeling to know that you're not alone in thinking that something is up here.

And there's these other forms of evidence, we'll say, quote unquote, that suggests that you're correct in those beliefs that these other people here believe it.

So surely you must be on to something.

And yeah, that could feel good.

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how it works, but what would be even more powerful is if you were in a social media bubble in which a bunch of other people were sharing affirming stories of their experiences with colloquial silver and sharing articles.

I picked such a weird example.

Yes, you did.