Project description
Models explaining alternative realities in politics and economics
Many people hold onto incorrect beliefs, forming an alternative reality based on the motives of influential actors. Those who subscribe to this alternative reality misperceive their environment and the incentives of other actors. The ERC-funded ALTREALITY project will create models for the supply and demand of alternative realities. On the supply side, the project will analyse the spread of political conspiracy theories, fear-based mobilisation tactics, and narratives that support fiscal conservatism. The demand side will formalise the concept that individuals turn to alternative realities to protect their core beliefs and identities. These models will help explain various phenomena in domestic and foreign politics and will be used to make new predictions that the project will test.
Objective
Many people hold systems of wrong beliefs, which combine into a semi-coherent alternative reality based on the sinister motives of influential actors. I build models of the supply of and demand for such alternative realities. The key idea is that people believing in alternative realities misperceive not only features of the environment but also the incentives of other actors. Applications of my supply side framework include the analysis of political conspiracy theories that serve to discredit the intellectual elite, fear mongering to prompt mobilization in a conflict, and anti-state narratives that serve to generate political support for fiscal conservatism. My demand side approach formalizes the idea that individuals believe in alternative realities to protect a set of core beliefs fundamental to maintain their preferred identities. These models explain stylized facts in domestic and foreign politics, and generate new predictions which I test.
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
10691 Stockholm
Sweden