Department of Political Science, Bartholins Allé 7, DK-8000 Aarhus, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Curr Opin Psychol. 2020 Oct;35:71-75. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.02.003. Epub 2020 Feb 20.
Large-scale mobilization is often accompanied by the emergence of demagogic leaders and the circulation of unverified rumors, especially if the mobilization happens in support of violent or disruptive projects. In those circumstances, researchers and commentators frequently explain the mobilization as a result of mass manipulation. Against this view, evolutionary psychologists have provided evidence that human psychology contains mechanisms for avoiding manipulation and new studies suggest that political manipulation attempts are, in general, ineffective. Instead, we can understand decisions to follow demagogic leaders and circulate fringe rumors as attempts to solve a social problem inherent to mobilization processes: The coordination problem. Essentially, these decisions reflect attempts to align the attention of individuals already disposed for conflict.
大规模动员往往伴随着煽动性领导人的出现和未经证实的谣言的传播，特别是如果动员是为了支持暴力或破坏性项目。在这种情况下，研究人员和评论员经常将动员解释为大规模操纵的结果。反对这种观点，进化心理学家提供了证据，证明人类心理学中存在避免操纵的机制，新的研究表明，政治操纵企图通常是无效的。相反，我们可以将追随煽动性领导人和传播边缘谣言的决定理解为试图解决动员过程中固有的一个社会问题：协调问题。本质上，这些决定反映了试图协调已经准备好冲突的个人的注意力。
