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Does Society Shape You, or Do You Shape Society? Social Psychology vs Psycho-Sociology

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@jorgebscomm for @empowervmedia [Image: Unsplash ] T wo disciplines study the relationship between the individual and the social world. They share overlapping territory, use some of the same concepts, and are frequently confused with one another. But they ask fundamentally different questions, come from different intellectual traditions, and produce different kinds of knowledge. Social psychology and psycho-sociology are not interchangeable terms. Understanding the distinction matters for anyone trying to think carefully about human behaviour and about which tools are most useful for which problems. "Social psychology asks how society gets inside the individual. Psycho-sociology asks how the individual gets inside society." Social psychology: the individual in social context Social psychology is a discipline rooted primarily in psychology (though it draws on sociology) and its foundational question is: how do social situations, other people, and group membership...

The Liar’s Dividend: How Disinformation Erodes Trust and Shields Deceit

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Produced by @empowervmedia * Edited & fact-checked by @jorgebscomm The liar's dividend lets scandal-plagued politicians and others claim plausible deniability for real actions.   (📷:politicamericana) I n an era of ubiquitous misinformation, a new phenomenon has emerged: the liar’s dividend . In simple terms, the liar’s dividend occurs when bad actors dismiss real news as “fake”, using the very existence of deepfakes and false content to muddy the waters and evade accountability . This means even genuine evidence (videos, audio recordings, or photos) can be shrugged off as forgeries. Researchers warn that as society becomes more aware of sophisticated deepfake and AI-manipulated media, cynical public perceptions may grow, “primed to doubt the authenticity of real audio and video evidence” . In practice, the liar’s dividend is already undermining confidence in media and institutions: by casting doubt on truth itself, it lets scandal-plagued politicians and others claim plausible...