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Outrage 009 – How social media gives us what captures our attention rather than what we actually want – Steven Rathje
David Beckemeye
This is part-two of a two-part series with Dr. Steven Rathje discussing research that found that social media creates incentives for out-group animosity, which can be a factor in increasing polarization. It is also harmful for mental health and society. In this episode, we also talk about the increasing problem of transparency of social media […]
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Outrage 008 – How social media creates incentives for out-group animosity – Steven Rathje
David Beckemeye
We introduced the podcast with a two-part series with Dr. Peter H. Ditto, Professor of Psychology & Social Behavior, telling us about “Political Sectarianism” explaining how our divide goes beyond policy preferences and ideas, arguing that American political partisans are bonded by something that looks more like religious faith where “our” side is morally superior […]
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Outrage 007 – How the outrage industry has evolved in the past decade – Jeffrey M. Berry
David Beckemeye
The term “outrage industry” is fundamental to this podcast. It comes up on basically every episode. On the podcast website, I introduce the podcast as follows: “in each episode we explore a different aspect of the outrage industry and lowering the temperature.” It’s such a key concept that the website has a separate page defining […]
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BONUS – Ninety-nine percent were so nice
David Beckemeye
It was just another typical day for Elaine (not her real name), a busy mom, running errands and making stops along the way. She had just pulled up to the local ATM, feeling confident and safe in her own neighborhood. But as she began her transaction, she was suddenly accosted by a masked stranger who […]
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Outrage 006 – How virality results in moral panics – Kurt Gray
David Beckemeye
Moral panics are not uncommon. Back in the 1980’s there was a moral panic over the game Dungeons and Dragons. Some parents believed D&D was the work of the devil, a gateway to joining a Satanic cult. It wasn’t “but this didn’t stop people from worrying about it,” says my guest on this episode, Dr. […]
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BONUS – Twitter and Mastodon with David Troy
David Beckemeye
In this bonus episode, I geek out with an old friend, David Troy. We talk about Twitter and the announcement today that they are shutting down free access to the API, the Twitter-alternative, Mastodon, along with some geopolitics and other things. From Ars Technica: Cash-strapped Twitter to start charging developers for API access next week […]
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Outrage 005 – Holocaust Denial – Luke Berryman
David Beckemeye
When I first approached the topic of this episode, the prototypical title was “It’s ok to punch Nazis.” Let me explain. As you know, the Outrage Overload podcast is science-oriented, intended to be non-partisan. If we talk about politics, we bring in scientists to talk about the psychology or neuroscience of politics, not about specific […]
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Outrage 004 – Why political parties in America cater less to moderate and independent voters – Sean Evans
David Beckemeye
I first reached out to Sean Evans because he wrote an article about Ways to Stay Out of the Culture of Outrage. However, when we met I got interested in hearing from a political scientist to get the political science perspective regarding some of the themes we often discuss on the podcast, such as political […]
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BONUS – ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence
David Beckemeye
I’m almost certain that you’ve heard of ChatGPT by now. It’s a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) chat bot that is taking the internet by storm, as they say. It’s free to use during a test period. Within days of launching, it soared to over one million users and now has several million – I don’t […]
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Outrage 003 – Why it’s so important to restore civility in our lives – Russ Charvonia
David Beckemeye
Uncivil behavior has become more common and more accepted in society. And Americans are concerned about it. In fact, the demise of civility is one of the very few things that almost everyone seems to agree on. The latest annual survey released by Weber Shandwick finds that 93% of Americans perceive incivility in society as […]
About

Outrage Overload is a podcast about the outrage industry, my journey to discover what it is, how it affects us, and what we can do about it.