The Individual and Societal Risks of Treating Fiction As Fact

Name: The Individual and Societal Risks of Treating Fiction As Fact
Start: 2025-05-23T00:00:00+00:00
Location: Washington, DC

Friday, May 23, 2025 · Washington, DC

Symposium · Friday, May 23, 2025 · 1:00 PM – 2:20 PM ET

Subject Area: Social

What are the dangers of treating fiction as fact? This symposium explores how unsubstantiated convictions fuel harmful outcomes, including polarization, risky health behaviors, misinformation spread, and violence. Our findings highlight that misplaced certainty—treating fiction as fact—poses a substantial risk to individual well-being and societal stability.

Chairs & Discussants

Gabriele OettingenChair
New York University
Anton GollwitzerCoChair
BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo
Anton GollwitzerCoChair
Max Plank Institute for Human Development, Berlin
Norbert SchwarzDiscussant
University of Southern California

Presentations

Polarization or Openness? How Motive Attributions Shaped Psychological Responses to the Trump Assassination AttemptJoseph Siev, Jacob Teeny
The Dangerous Combination of Misplaced Certainty and Perceived VictimhoodBrian Kang, Irmak Olcaysoy Okten, Neharika Nair
False Confidence, Real Consequence: Misplaced Certainty Promotes Misinformation SharingSara Alida Volkmer, Martin Meissner
Misplaced Certainty in U.S. Presidential Rhetoric Predicts Political Violence Anton Gollwitzer, Yooeun Jeong, Gabriele Oettingen

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The Individual and Societal Risks of Treating Fiction As Fact

Chairs & Discussants

Presentations

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