POSTPONED. EGENIS seminar series: "Beliefs, Signals, and Groups" Dr Daniel Williams (University of Cambridge)

An increasingly influential hypothesis in political science is that certain forms of group-based misinformation are driven by psychological and social processes in which unfounded beliefs come to function as signals of group identity and loyalty. I clarify, scrutinise, and offer a partial defence of this ‘signalling hypothesis’. Drawing on signalling theory and various characteristics of human psychology and groups, (i) I develop a theoretical framework for understanding why and how beliefs come to perform group-signalling functions and (ii) I explain how this phenomenon can be distinguished from other explanations of group-based misinformation.