ABSTRACT
This brief chapter presents several possible departures from a simple story about how misinformation is consumed and spread. According to this simple story, misinformation is encountered, shapes the beliefs of those who consume it and thereby influences their subsequent behavior, including the tendency to share the misinformation in question. One departure from the simple story suggests that misinformation often serves to rationalize beliefs that are attractive for non-epistemic reasons. Another departure suggests that misinformation serves in large part to signal group loyalties. A final departure suggests that misinformation is often spread non-credulously, with the intention of influencing others’ beliefs. The chapter concludes by arguing that, even if one or more of these departures from the simple story is correct, confronting misinformation in the ways suggested in earlier chapters is nonetheless important.
