[ExI] The science of fake news

[Keith Henson]

Dear Dr. Lazer

For me the critical passage in your excellent article starts with:

"The United States has undergone a parallel geo- and sociopolitical
evolution. Geographic polarization of partisan preferences has
dramatically increased over the past 40 years,"

On evolutionary psychology grounds, I suspect that population growth
and widespread recognition of limits has tripped human psychological
mechanisms that evolved far back in pre-history.  If all other causes
(such as disease) fails to knock overpopulation back, then war does.
The proposal is that a resource crisis trips on evolved psychologic
mechanisms that cause the affected population to amplify xenophobic
memes.  Eventually, this psychs up the warriors for a do or die attack
on the neighboring tribe.  Win or lose, the local area overpopulation
problem was solved.

Our ancestors ran into this problem every generation or two for the
last few million years--ever since we became the top predator.  It is
no wonder that a response evolved.

I also suspect that the modern day trip mechanism is a bleak economic
outlook.  To keep this psychological mechanism turned off, rising or
at least steady, income per capita is required.

I have an unpublished paper on a math model examining the genetic
outcomes of starving in place vs going to war.  If you want to see it,
ask.


Best wishes,

Keith Henson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Henson