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Policy folklists and evolutionary theory.

Barry O'Neill1

  • 1Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 barry.oneill@polisci.ucla.edu.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|July 16, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Policy folklists, or alleged historical facts used in social issues, persist due to appealing messages and credible users. This study uses evolutionary theory to explain their endurance and influence on public belief.

Keywords:
evolutionfolklorejeremaidsrumors

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Area of Science:

  • Social Science
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Media Studies

Background:

  • Policy folklists present historical facts relevant to social issues.
  • The validity of these folklists is often questionable.
  • Folklists are widely circulated in media by leaders and writers.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the origins and changes of policy folklists.
  • To apply evolutionary theory to understand the persistence of folklists.
  • To clarify how folklists gain credibility among skeptical audiences.

Main Methods:

  • Drawing an analogy with biological evolutionary theory.
  • Analyzing the mechanisms of self-repair, boundary maintenance, plasticity, speciation, and predation.
  • Examining the historical record of policy folklists.

Main Results:

  • Evolutionary mechanisms provide a framework for understanding folklists' endurance.
  • Credibility and appealing messages drive the repetition of folklists.
  • Folklists can persist for decades, evolving over time.

Conclusions:

  • Biological evolutionary principles offer insights into the dynamics of policy folklists.
  • Understanding these mechanisms can help critically assess information presented in public discourse.
  • The study clarifies how dubious historical narratives gain traction and influence.