Conspiracy theorists are victims of algorithms and confirmation bias, like the rest of us

The problem with “doing your own research” on the internet is that the algorithm panders to our confirmation biases and pre-existing beliefs, writes Kenji Sato.

WHEN speaking to conspiracy theorists who had gathered outside Parliament House, I was repeatedly told to “do my own research” when it came to the coronavirus.

None of them were researchers, in the traditional sense. One protester told me she conducted her “research” on the internet.

“I know how bodies work, I’ve done enough looking myself to find out,” she said.

“I’ve been looking into biology for years now. I know how the body works.”

Kenji Sato speaks with a conspiracy theorist who has “done her own research” on human biology. Picture: Kenji Sato

It wasn’t just anti-vaxxers at the protest; they’d printed out a pamphlet with seemingly every conspiracy theory crammed into it - all products of their online “research”.

The problem with internet research is that, like the Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter, it shows you exactly what you want to see.

Confirmation bias has always been a thing, but now we have algorithms that can automate the whole process.

Every time we browse the internet we are leaving behind a trail of tracking cookies that reveal our biases, our preferences, our deepest yearnings.

Those cookies are then snapped up by a hungry pack of algorithms that learn more and more about us with every byte.

Anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists protest outside the Tasmanian parliament. Picture: Kenji Sato

Case in point: I bought a Netflix subscription with the honest intention of watching highbrow documentaries, but my recommended list quickly filled with brain-melting action flicks.

I once made the mistake of watching some YouTube videos by Jordan Peterson, and for weeks my feed was filled with videos with titles such as “Feminist bitch gets WRECKED”.

I may like to think of myself as a discerning consumer of art house films and video essays, but the algorithm knows I’m really a dopamine-chasing monkey.

The algorithm is actively out to feed that monkey, catering to its every whim, pandering to its every bias in order to maximise how much time you spend in front of the screen.

In a sense, these conspiracy theorists are no different to you and I. They just happen to have fallen down a particularly insidious monkey hole.

Protestors on the steps of the Tasmanian Parliament. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Perhaps there’s a lesson we can learn from this: sometimes it’s best that we don’t get what we want.

This may be more than a little self-serving, being a newspaper reporter, but I feel that one of the great advantages of traditional media is that there is editorial oversight.

The editor decides what does and does not make it in the paper, regardless of how many clicks it gets on social media.

We cover every state budget, even though it performs dismally online. Why? Because it is important, because it is newsworthy, because power must be held to account.

Reading about the state budget may be the journalistic equivalent of eating your vegetables, but it’s important to eat your vegetables.

Kenji Sato is a reporter for The Mercury