Avsnitt
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The Semmelweis Effect, COVID Cognitive Decline, and Why Evidence Struggles to Spread
Host Leslie Poston explains the Semmelweis effect (reflexively rejecting strong evidence because it threatens identity or established norms) through Ignaz Semmelweis’ 1840s discovery that chlorinated handwashing slashed childbed-fever deaths, despite fierce professional backlash and decades-long delay before adoption. She distinguishes the effect from confirmation bias and links it to cognitive dissonance, status quo bias, and identity-protective cognition. The episode then connects this pattern to research showing COVID-19 infection is associated with measurable, cumulative cognitive deficits (memory, reasoning, executive function), limited protection from vaccination, and brain changes, with reinfection worsening decline and older or severe cases at higher risk. Poston argues these impairments may reduce society’s ability to update beliefs, compounding the typical 17-year medical translation gap and polarized trust in science, and suggests bias awareness, infection prevention, living guidelines, better evidence infrastructure, and transparent communication.
00:00 Semmelweis Effect Intro
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01:05 Deadly Maternity Mystery
01:38 Handwashing Breakthrough
02:21 Why Evidence Gets Rejected
03:30 Bias Mechanics Explained
05:58 Not Just Skepticism
07:11 COVID Cognitive Decline Data
08:37 Brain Changes And Reinfection
11:22 Translation Gap In Medicine
13:33 Trust Polarization Problem
14:38 Three Forces Collide
15:30 Practical Ways Forward
18:20 Closing Reflection And Signoff -
Sustained Uncertainty at Work: Why It Hurts Your Brain and What Helps
Host Leslie Poston discusses sustained workplace uncertainty and its psychological effects, citing an APA Monitor on Psychology article and survey data showing widespread job insecurity, low engagement, and feelings of being replaceable or invisible—especially among workers under 25. She explains research finding peak stress at maximum uncertainty and connects it to ongoing “maybe” conditions created by economic instability, policy shifts, AI restructuring, and layoffs at profitable companies, which sever the link between effort and security and contribute to survivor syndrome, reduced collaboration, and morale gaps between HR and executives. Declining trust and weak communication—highlighted by Edelman and Gallup findings—intensify uncertainty, while workplace ostracism can activate pain-related brain regions and disproportionately affects women of color. She offers limits-aware coping ideas: reduce self-blame, assess whether uncertainty is temporary or permanent, diversify identity beyond work, and evaluate whether leadership will tell the truth.
00:00 Welcome and Setup
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00:21 Workplace Uncertainty Data
01:48 Why Uncertainty Hurts
02:37 Living in Maybe
04:03 Profit Driven Layoffs
06:30 Survivor Syndrome Fallout
08:01 Trust Makes It Bearable
10:03 Manager Pipeline Breakdown
10:40 Invisibility and Ostracism
12:25 What You Can Do
13:09 Action Steps That Help
15:46 Closing Thoughts -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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Bullshit Receptivity: Why We Trust the Wrong Words
Host Leslie Poston discusses “bullshit receptivity,” a peer-reviewed construct describing susceptibility to impressive-sounding but meaningless language. She highlights Cornell cognitive psychologist Shane Littrell’s studies in which over 1,000 office workers rated AI-generated corporate jargon alongside real executive quotes; those most impressed scored lowest on analytic thinking and workplace decision-making, and were more likely to amplify jargon in a feedback loop that rewards BS-producing leaders. Poston connects this to earlier work by Gordon Pennycook (University of Waterloo) on pseudo-profound statements and cognitive defaults like initial acceptance and weak conflict monitoring, and to research linking BS receptivity with overclaiming, poor metacognition, fake news vulnerability (Pennycook and Rand), political slogans, and “scientific” BS. She notes Brandolini’s Law and emphasizes practicing analytic thinking, including restating claims in plain language, citing the University of Washington’s “Calling Bullshit” course and mentioning future coverage of pre-bunking.
00:00 Welcome and Setup
00:41 Cornell Corporate BS Study
02:49 Feedback Loop and Examples
04:56 Waterloo Origins of BS Scale
06:12 Why We Fall for It
07:55 Metacognition and Overclaiming
08:41 BS in News and Politics
10:28 Scientific and General BS
11:52 Training Your BS Detector
13:50 Practical Plain Language Test
14:47 Wrap Up and TeaserThe studies referenced:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886926000620
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/03/workers-who-love-synergizing-paradigms-might-be-bad-their-jobs
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/judgment-and-decision-making/article/on-the-reception-and-detection-of-pseudoprofound-bullshit/0D3C87BCC238BCA38BC55E395BDC9999
https://sjdm.org/~baron/journal/20/200221/jdm200221.pdf
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/202007/does-america-have-problem-bullshit-receptivity
https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/08/when-it-comes-to-the-academic-study-of-fake-news-bullshit-receptivity-is-a-thing/
https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/6565
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13546783.2022.2066724UPDATED with notes from the study author: (Note: I love it when an author adds nuance! We lead with curiosity here and we know 15 - 25 minute episodic summaries can potentially overly-condense a topic.)
Replying to the LinkedIn post about this, Dr. Littrell said:
"Re: "The findings are consistent across every domain: the strongest predictor of whether someone catches BS is whether they engage analytic thinking or "go with their gut"."
There's a bit more to it than that. People can fall for BS through either mode of thinking (more "reflective" and more "intuitive"):
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13546783.2023.2189163
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.4154More detailed discussion here, for anyone interested: https://bullshitology.substack.com/p/brown-pilled-why-we-fall-for-bullshit"
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The Credibility Trap: Why Confidence Beats Correctness
Host Leslie Poston is back after a hiatus to move PsyberSpace to a new weekly Thursday schedule and explains why people often trust confident speakers over accurate ones, calling it the “credibility trap.” She outlines the confidence heuristic (certainty feels like evidence), why it works through verbal cues across all media, and how Dunning-Kruger dynamics and overclaiming research show that learning a little can increase false recognition and perceived expertise, a risk she notes may worsen with increased LLM use. She adds the authority heuristic, where credentials or platforms suppress scrutiny, and describes harms when confidently wrong figures are amplified, including in public health and policy. Research on “bullshit receptivity” and overconfidence in news judgment shows some people are especially vulnerable and unaware. She argues honest expertise sounds uncertain due to scientific qualifiers, which media incentives punish, and offers habits to resist: treat uncertainty as a knowledge signal, watch for broad undifferentiated certainty, separate authority from accuracy, and question one’s own discernment.
00:00 Welcome Back Update
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00:21 The Credibility Trap
01:14 Confidence Heuristic Explained
03:05 Dunning Kruger And Overclaiming
06:10 Authority Signals Amplify Errors
09:49 Who Falls For It
12:11 Honesty Sounds Uncertain
15:38 How To Resist The Trap
18:18 Final Thoughts And Sign Off -
How Propaganda Uses Your Values Against Your Brain: The Passport Revocation Example
Host Leslie Poston explains that no one is immune to propaganda, using her own initial approval of a proposal to revoke passports for unpaid child support as an example of how emotional framing can short-circuit deeper thinking. She argues effective propaganda relies on a grain of truth and an emotional trigger, using agenda-setting to shape what people think about and how, and distinguishes agitation propaganda (fast, gut-response) from integration propaganda (slow, worldview-shaping). She describes how moral conviction, motivated reasoning, and cognitive fluency can recruit analytical skill to defend prior conclusions, making simple frames feel both right and true. She warns that vague mechanisms attached to sympathetic victims can expand beyond intent, citing civil asset forfeiture and welfare fraud provisions, and offers habits: slow down on strong emotions, ask who’s missing from the frame, examine the mechanism and recourse, reject forced binaries, and note topics where scrutiny feels disloyal.
00:00 No One Is Immune
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00:35 Passport Law Gut Reaction
02:15 Propaganda Uses Truth
03:08 Agitation vs Integration
04:55 Moral Conviction Trigger
06:26 Fluency Feels Like Truth
07:30 Framing Hides Mechanisms
08:42 Policy History Examples
09:33 Five Anti Propaganda Habits
12:10 Create the Thinking Gap
12:41 Closing and Subscribe -
Moral Licensing: Why Doing Good Can Make Us Behave Worse
Host Leslie Poston explains the phenomenon of moral licensing: after people do something that affirms their identity as a good person, the brain registers progress toward a moral goal, reducing self-regulatory effort and making later unethical choices more likely, sometimes in unrelated domains. Using a fitness “daily budget” analogy, the episode describes evidence from environmental psychology (green purchases followed by increased lying and cheating), research on racial bias (publicly demonstrating egalitarian credentials followed by more biased choices), activism (low-cost visible actions reducing motivation for harder follow-through), and organizational contexts (leaders with strong ethical self-identities engaging in minor violations because identity buffers self-concept). Poston emphasizes the effect is unconscious, doesn’t require bad intentions, and calls for attention to the misleading feeling of having “done your part.”
00:00 Welcome and Topic Setup
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00:40 What Is Moral Licensing
01:34 Virtue as a Budget
02:46 Green Choices Backfire
04:53 Licensing and Racial Bias
06:58 Activism and Workplace Ethics
08:28 Why the Brain Does It
10:44 Spotting It in Yourself
11:51 Wrap Up and Sign Off -
The Cost of Losing Serendipity in Algorithmic Discovery
Host Leslie Poston discusses how algorithmic recommendation systems have replaced everyday accidental discovery, reducing serendipity and narrowing what people encounter. The episode explains psychological and neuroscience research showing novelty’s role in motivation, attention, learning, and memory (including locus coeruleus activation), the inverted-U relationship between complexity and curiosity, and how habituation can flatten engagement when stimuli stay too familiar. Poston contrasts this with the mere exposure effect (Zajonc) and processing fluency, arguing platforms reinforce and shape preferences through repeated exposure, producing “adjacent novelty” rather than true surprise. She links personalization to self-concept via the looking-glass self and self-perception theory, describing identity-shaping pipelines, and argues personalization reduces shared cultural overlap, contributing to epistemological fragmentation. Practical suggestions include turning off autoplay, browsing physical spaces, reading outside one’s interests, and holding preferences lightly to preserve room for the unexpected.
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00:00 Welcome and Setup
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01:16 What Serendipity Means
02:03 From Browsing to Algorithms
03:10 Novelty and Learning Science
05:12 Mere Exposure and Reinforced Taste
07:48 Adjacent Novelty Trap
09:29 Algorithms and Identity Mirrors
11:55 Shared Culture and Fragmentation
13:33 Agency and Slow Effects
16:37 Reclaiming the Unexpected
18:34 Closing Thoughts
19:19 Outro and Subscribe -
Semantic Derailment and the Social Permission That Sustains Organized Sexual Violence
Host Leslie Poston discusses a CNN investigation into an “online rape academy,” including a Telegram group called ZZZ where nearly 1,000 men allegedly coordinated drugging and sexual assault, shared footage, discussed substances and dosages, and advertised paid live streams; while ZZZ was taken down, the U.S.-hosted site Motherless remains public, drawing about 62 million visits in February and hosting 20,000+ videos tagged with phrases like “passed out” and “eyecheck.” Poston connects this to the Dominique Pelicot case and argues the network has migrated and grown, including related misogynistic trends on TikTok. She critiques the male-dominated focus on disputing the “62 million” figure as moral disengagement and “semantic derailment,” linking it to betrayal trauma, social invalidation, and women’s hypervigilance. Poston argues these reactions provide social permission that enables perpetrators and calls for sustained engagement and pressure so “shame must change sides.”
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00:00 Welcome to PsyberSpace
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00:30 CNN Rape Academy Exposed
01:41 Motherless Still Online
02:43 Pelicot Case Parallels
03:46 The Numbers Distraction
05:22 Moral Disengagement Explained
06:49 Betrayal Trauma and Dismissal
08:44 Invalidation and Hypervigilance
10:23 Same System Continuum
12:19 Community Collusion and Cover
13:06 What Real Response Looks Like
13:49 Closing and Call to Action -
The Ethics of Reality TV: Deception, Conflict, and What We Normalize
Host Leslie Poston examines the ethical and psychological costs of reality and reality-adjacent TV that relies on deception or engineered conflict, arguing the key issue is whether harm is built into a show’s format rather than whether it is scripted. Using Jury Duty as an example of compromised informed consent and Survivor as an example of formats that reward manipulation, humiliation, and betrayal, she asks what it does to participants and to audiences when cruelty is reframed as “gameplay.” She discusses contestant harms (disorientation, stress, surveillance, reputational damage through editing, and minimal compensation) and viewer effects (social learning, desensitization, parasocial attachment, and moral distancing). She contrasts Squid Game as an explicit critique of exploitation and argues profit, contracts, and aftercare do not equal ethical permission, calling for standards centered on consent, dignity, and psychological safety.
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00:00 Reality TV Ethics
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01:47 Harm Built In
03:41 Deception and Consent
06:12 Survivor and Cruelty
08:18 Contestant Fallout
10:57 How Viewers Change
13:19 Culture and Squid Game
15:11 Profit Over People
16:21 Better Standards
18:00 Closing and Callouts -
AI Slop and Your Brain: Attention, Fatigue, and the Erosion of Meaning
Host Leslie Poston explains how “AI slop” is industrial-scale synthetic content optimized for volume and fast reactions rather than accuracy or usefulness, ranging from keyword-stuffed articles and fake reviews to fabricated quotes, fake images, and targeted deepfake audio/video. She argues it exploits cognitive shortcuts like attentional capture and processing fluency, creating decision fatigue, weakening deliberate “system two” thinking, and making it harder to suppress irrelevant junk. Repetition fuels the illusory truth effect, increasing perceived accuracy even with fact-check labels and eroding a shared factual baseline. Platforms’ variable-ratio, slot-machine-like feeds reward engagement regardless of truth, selecting for reaction-triggering slop and crowding out careful human work, with documented economic harms to creators and a sense of hollowness or “existential vacuum” for audiences. Poston recommends protecting cognitive resources by spending less time in algorithmic feeds, curating sources, seeking deeper work, and notes a Wharton paper on “cognitive surrender,” plus her 2026 Women in Podcasting nomination.
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00:00 What AI Slop Looks Like
01:09 Industrial Scale Deception
03:04 Brain Shortcuts Exploited
04:52 Decision Fatigue Online
06:35 Illusory Truth Effect
09:14 Slot Machine Feeds
11:35 Emotional Meaning Drain
13:45 Creators and Authenticity
15:06 Verification Tax and Society
16:10 Protect Your Attention
17:53 Cognitive Surrender Study
18:22 Wrap Up and SupportWharton Paper on Cognitive Surrender
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Meta Verdicts, Kids’ Harm, and the Push for Age Verification
Host Leslie Poston reviews two jury verdicts finding Meta liable for harming children: a New Mexico case ordering $375 million in civil penalties for concealing knowledge about child sexual exploitation and mental health impacts, and a Los Angeles negligence case where Meta and YouTube were found liable and Kaylee was awarded $6 million for worsened anxiety and depression from compulsive use starting at ages 6 and 9. Poston cites internal Meta research (Project Myst) and communications likening effects to drugs and gambling, arguing the fine is negligible versus Meta’s $201B revenue. She critiques rapid policy pivots to age verification and digital ID laws, describing requirements like government ID uploads and biometrics via third parties as surveillance, easily bypassed with VPNs, and harmful to those needing anonymity. She notes Meta’s lobbying and covert funding for age-verification groups, and offers questions about beneficiaries, fit to harm, psychology of surveillance, non-technological causes, exposure, and real accountability.
00:00 Welcome and Overview
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00:30 Jury Verdicts Against Meta
01:41 Evidence and Accountability Gap
03:00 Policy Pivot to Age Verification
04:11 Surveillance and Anonymity Risks
06:01 Why Our Brains Accept Bad Fixes
08:34 Meta Lobbying and Hidden Incentives
09:40 Five Questions to Ask
12:34 Closing Thoughts -
Why “Give 100%” Is Corrosive: Sustainable Performance, Burnout, and Reserve Capacity
Host Leslie Poston examines the phrase “give 100%” in American work culture, tracing it to Protestant work-ethic theology and arguing it became a management tool that moralizes maximum output despite lacking empirical support. The episode contrasts this norm with research on sustainable performance, citing shorter-workweek trials. Poston explains how “100%” ignores unequal baselines via allostatic load, highlights commute and remote-work effects, and details autistic burnout and masking costs. Drawing on Christina Maslach’s burnout research and WHO recognition, the script argues burnout is organizational, not personal, and advocates structural changes and operating below maximum (e.g., “give 60%”).00:00 Why Give 100%
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01:06 Protestant Work Ethic
03:18 No Evidence Just Inherited
04:20 The Math of Depletion
04:52 Four Day Week Proof
06:59 Reserve Beats Extraction
07:49 Unequal Starting Baselines
08:08 Allostatic Load Explained
10:25 Remote Work Stress Relief
11:42 Neurodivergent Hidden Costs
13:14 Masking and Autistic Burnout
15:39 Self Care Myth
16:15 Maslach Burnout Research
19:32 Why the Norm Persists
20:04 Sustainable Performance Science
21:38 A Question for Yourself
22:26 Evidence Based Changes
22:59 Give 60% Closing
23:11 Sign Off -
Common Sense or Power Move? The One Question That Reveals the Difference
Host Leslie Poston argues that “common sense” is often used to end conversations and universalize one person’s perception rather than provide evidence. She explains this through naïve realism (people experience their perceptions as objective reality), embodied cognition (gut intuitions shaped by bodily and lived experience), and positionality (social location shapes what becomes perceptually salient). She cites the “WEIRD” problem in psychology showing many supposedly universal findings don’t generalize across cultures, and connects “common sense” to Gramsci’s hegemony, where dominant-group assumptions become normalized as natural and inevitable. Without endorsing relativism, she notes motivated reasoning can make conclusions feel obvious before scrutiny. She closes with a practical test for sussing out “common sense” claims.
00:00 Common Sense Setup
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02:04 Obvious as Default
03:27 Naive Realism Lens
06:17 Embodied Intuition
08:28 Positional Blind Spots
10:04 WEIRD Not Universal
14:08 Common Sense as Power
17:16 Not Relativism
18:03 Motivated Reasoning
20:10 One Key Question
21:13 Practical Takeaways
23:56 Closing and Next Week -
When AI Becomes a Confidant: Loneliness, Engagement Incentives, and the Risks of Chatbot “Support”
Host Leslie Poston examines why so many adults and teens are using LLM chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude as friends, therapy substitutes, or romantic stand-ins, linking it to eroding community, expensive and inaccessible mental health care, and tech incentives optimized for engagement. Citing Meta’s engagement-driven practices and data harms as an example of industry patterns, she argues similar incentives shape AI “support” tools with little clinical oversight. She discusses attachment theory, parasocial dynamics, and research showing dependency trajectories and correlations between higher daily AI use and greater loneliness and reduced real-world socialization, with chatbots tending to validate rumination rather than promote reappraisal. She highlights lethal failure cases involving suicide encouragement and prolonged affirmation during crises, notes harms also affect adults, critiques child-focused age-verification bills as privacy-eroding surveillance, and points to targeted interventions (e.g., NY’s AI companion requirements) and clinicians asking about AI use, emphasizing real community connection as the root solution.
00:00 AI as Confidant
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01:28 Why People Turn to Bots
02:56 Engagement First Tech History
05:40 Psychology of AI Attachment
07:49 Dependence and Loneliness Data
10:29 When Affirmation Turns Deadly
12:47 Adults at Risk Too
15:36 Child Safety Bills and Age Checks
19:23 What Actually Helps
21:39 Closing and Call to Action -
Forever War and the Stolen Future
Host Leslie Poston examines a hidden psychological cost of “forever wars”: they don’t just create fear and grief, they change how people relate to time—shrinking hope, planning, and the ability to believe in tomorrow. She explains how chronic threat and recurring escalation can trap individuals and whole societies in emergency mode, erode trust in institutions, and create a sense of democratic powerlessness, citing January 2026 U.S. polling from Quinnipiac showing over 85% of voters opposed military action against Iran. The episode also explores how constant media exposure, moral implication in state violence, and the normalization of instability shape adults and children alike. Poston closes by arguing that resilience isn’t enough without public conditions that restore agency—real ceasefires, accountability, and functioning community supports that make a future feel livable again.
00:00 Welcome and Setup
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00:48 War Shrinks Tomorrow
02:11 Defining Forever War
03:19 Powerlessness and Consent
04:26 Future Orientation Explained
06:22 Foreshortened Future
08:17 Time Disorientation
09:57 Cascading Social Damage
13:14 Politics and Authoritarian Drift
14:16 Media Exposure and Implication
16:19 Children Inherit Instability
18:10 Expanding the Future Again
20:14 Closing and Call to Action -
Losing Our Heroes: The Epstein Files, Elite Complicity, and the Psychology of Looking Away
Host Leslie Poston discusses the psychological impact of seeing the names of people you once admired or trusted in the Epstein files. Poston examines why revelations connected to the Epstein files can feel psychologically destabilizing, especially when they involve admired public figures and trusted institutions. Drawing on research in power and social perception, implicit cognition, moral disengagement, parasocial relationships, and betrayal trauma, the episode explores how people and systems can minimize harm, avoid accountability, and sustain “looking away,” and discusses grief, anger, and disillusionment as part of responding clearly to what the files document.
00:00 Welcome + Content Warning: Losing Our Heroes in the Epstein Revelations
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00:50 What the Epstein Files Really Represent (Not a ‘Scandal’)
02:30 The Eugenics Ideology Behind the Network’s Power
03:34 Why It Went On for Decades: Power, Attention, and Elite Blindness
05:11 Implicit Cognition & ‘Motivated Not Knowing’ Among Ethical Public Figures
08:25 How Media & Religion Train Us to Soften Abuse (Moral Disengagement)
11:25 Parasocial Grief, Cognitive Dissonance, and Identity Shame
13:57 Betrayal Trauma: Survivors, Institutions, and Why Accountability Matters
16:02 Recovering After Disillusionment: Grief, Anger, and Clear-Eyed Demands
18:06 Closing -
Sustained Resistance: How Communities Keep Showing Up Under Repression
Host Leslie Poston closes PsyberSpace’s three-part series on American authoritarianism by focusing on the psychology of sustained resistance. Drawing on findings that real-world bystander intervention occurs in most incidents, she distinguishes one-time helping from long-term collective action and uses Minneapolis as an example of ongoing community response to state violence. She reviews research suggesting risk can increase commitment when paired with anger at repression and a belief that participation matters, and argues effective resistance relies on pre-existing collective efficacy built through repeated small acts of trust and mutual aid. She references Havel’s idea of “living in truth,” where refusing to perform compliance with obvious lies creates a growing space where propaganda fails. Poston also outlines factors that sustain activism under repression: emotional solidarity, alternative information/documentation sources as “epistemic infrastructure,” tactical flexibility, and the belief that others share one’s perception of reality. She also discusses the danger of pluralistic ignorance and discusses Erica Chenoweth’s research on civil resistance, including the higher historical success of nonviolent movements and cautions about overinterpreting the 3.5% threshold and changing success rates in the 2010s. Poston emphasizes diverse roles and tactics (street protest, documentation, legal support, sanctuary, labor action, and local noncooperation) and ends with practical guidance: build community relationships before crisis, maintain reality-testing against gaslighting, and choose an appropriate role to make dissent visible.
00:00 Welcome Back + What This Finale Covers
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01:05 Beyond the Bystander Effect: What Sustained Resistance Requires
02:41 Risk, Anger, and Why Danger Can Fuel Commitment
03:47 Collective Efficacy: The Trust Built Before the Crisis
05:41 “Living in Truth”: Refusing to Perform the Lie
07:35 4 Keys to Staying Engaged Under Repression
10:17 Mass Participation, Nonviolence, and Diversity of Tactics
12:15 Practical Takeaways: Build Community, Protect Reality, Find Your Role
14:29 Series Wrap-Up + Final Thoughts and Next Episode Tease -
The Power and Purpose of Obvious Lies in Authoritarian Regimes
In this episode of PsyberSpace®, host Leslie Poston explores why authoritarian regimes tell obvious lies that contradict available video evidence and their psychological impact on the public. The discussion digs into how such lies serve to dominate rather than persuade, sorting the population, degrading shared reality, and forcing individuals to either accept the lie, stay quiet, or openly reject it. The episode also touches on concepts like institutional gaslighting, epistemic violence, and moral injury, highlighting the social costs and potential resilience strategies against these tactics. The upcoming part three will focus on the psychology of resistance and collective action.
00:00 Introduction to Authoritarian Lies
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00:36 The Psychology Behind Obvious Lies
01:44 Propaganda and Domination
02:25 Sorting the Population
03:08 Degrading Shared Reality
03:37 Forcing a Choice
04:22 Institutional Gaslighting
05:05 Epistemology of Ignorance
06:32 Racist Gaslighting
08:02 Moral Injury and Exhaustion
10:14 The Cost of Dissent
12:27 Social Connection as Resistance
14:22 The Power of Documentation
14:53 The Vulnerability of Obvious Lies
15:24 Looking Ahead: The Psychology of Resistance
15:46 Conclusion and Sign Off -
Understanding American Authoritarianism Short Series Part 1 of 3: Expansion of State Violence
In the first part of a special three-episode series on PsyberSpace®, host Leslie Poston examines the psychology of authoritarianism with a focus on the expansion of state violence in the United States. Highlighting the significance of understanding how psychological patterns predict such outcomes, Leslie discusses recent events involving federal immigration agents and names the victims to humanize the statistics. She delves into various research by black scholars and others on moral exclusion, implicit bias, police violence, and the mechanisms behind systematic racism. The episode underscores the importance of recognizing and acting against the contraction of the moral circle and prepares the audience for the next episode on the psychology of manufactured reality.
00:00 Introduction to American Authoritarianism
01:11 Documenting State Violence
03:02 Moral Exclusion and Dehumanization
05:43 Intersectionality and Systemic Racism
06:37 Expanding Carceral State
11:21 Survivor Psychology and Clarity
13:13 Conclusion and Next Episode PreviewResearch will be added to PsyberSpace later this week
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The Illusion of Digital Safety: How Age Gates and Digital IDs Miss the Mark
In this episode of PsyberSpace, host Leslie Poston digs into the ineffectiveness and risks of age gates and digital ID verification systems aimed at protecting children online. Highlighting global legislative attempts and their unintended consequences, Poston argues that these measures often exacerbate digital risks while failing to address root causes such as inadequate parental capacity, literacy deficiencies, and systemic economic struggles. The episode challenges the moral panic around social media's impact on youth mental health, pointing out that true protection requires structural change rather than symbolic, ineffective solutions.
00:00 Introduction and Data Breach Experiment
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01:09 Global Push for Age Gates and Digital ID Verification
02:24 Moral Panic and Media Influence
02:51 Scientific Evidence on Social Media and Youth Wellbeing
07:02 The Real Issues: Parenting Capacity and Literacy Crisis
09:35 The Illusion of Control: Age Gates and Surveillance
14:09 Effective Solutions and Structural Change
15:27 Conclusion and Final Thoughts - Visa fler
