Anti-vaxxers exploit tight-knit migrant cliques vulnerable to conformity

Evidence

What we see here is anti-vaxxers peddling their beliefs—beliefs completely unsupported by evidence—to a close-knit group particularly susceptible to their message. In doing so, they take advantage of conformity effects. The Somali community in Minnesota is a classic case of a highly connected clique embedded in a larger group. By spreading the same information to peers who are especially likely to then discuss the matter and reinforce the messages they are getting, anti-vaxxers tap into this social network structure. If multiple members of a peer group can be brought around to a new way of thinking at once, conformity’s usual resistance to change is instead co-opted to encourage the new practice. And once many members of the group decide not to vaccinate, the social effects within the group make it much more stable than one bold person bucking a trend. — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 485

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the autism-vaccine disinformation thread from Chapter 2’s discussion of false beliefs spreading through social transmission. — connects to: Conformity prevails when false beliefs carry no personal costs to the believer — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 306; Anti-vax influencers reframed vaccination as selfish endangerment of the vulnerable — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 104; External danger and social isolation drive members toward group conformity. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4142 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• External danger and social isolation drive members toward group conformity. #corroborates (0.82) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4142
• Anti-vax influencers reframed vaccination as selfish endangerment of the vulnerable #expands (0.78) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 104