The uses of philosophy and computer science are coming together to explain the phenomenon of how beliefs spread within a society.
Robert Heckendorn, an associate professor of computer science, and Bert Baumgaertner, an assistant professor of philosophy, are working to create a model that explains the spread of beliefs and ideas.
Heckendorn said that the idea just came to them during a casual conversation. He said that he and Baumgaertner realized they could use each other”s skills to create a visual representation of the spreading of beliefs.
Heckendorn and Baumgaertner have created four different models that demonstrate how beliefs spread, with the most visual model being the agent-based model. In this model, they can decide how accepting of differing ideas people are. The simulation then begins with people with different beliefs being represented by different colored squares below them. As the people interact, the colored squares progressively change as the ideas are exchanged. A bar graph also demonstrates the gaps between more extreme ideas as well as the amount of people who believe the same thing.
“What you need are people in between, a path in between, to slowly pull people across,” Heckendorn said.
Heckendorn said the pair still has plenty of work to do, but what they have found so far is that people are more accepting and influenced by people who have ideas similar to their own. People with polar-opposite views typically disregard each other”s views.
Heckendorn said the further away an individual”s beliefs are from another individual”s beliefs, the less likely they are to influence one another. When people are open-minded, it results in many mixed ideas in contrast to a few extreme beliefs.
With the use of the internet, ideas and beliefs are easily accessible, so one might think that people would be more open-minded, Baumgaertner said. In reality, people tend to pick material that agrees with their own belief system. Baumgaertner described this as a “confirmation bias.”
“So if I have a belief that I don”t want to quite count as knowledge yet, and I run into someone who agrees with it, I suddenly become more confident in my belief,” Baumgaertner said. “I haven”t gotten any new evidence for it, I just found someone else who believes in that belief, and I now become more confident in that opinion.”
Baumgaertner said he is interested in how individual biases may lead to population patterns of bias, such as the polarization of the political spectrum.
Heckendorn said that this information could also help explain how we get extremist groups, such as ISIS.
“Once we know how things work, we”re no longer scared of them,” Heckendorn said.
Heckendorn said by limiting ideas to a line spectrum of extremes and in-betweens, people are potentially missing common ground that could bring points together. In order to solve the problem, he said, it”s necessary to get off this line.
“Getting an understanding of something gives you the power to actually do something,” Heckendorn said.
Marisa Casella can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @marisacasella1