Toward a Socio-Epistemology of the Doxastic Process: Forming Beliefs in a Political World

Building on cognitive psychology work, I argue for a dual-system theory according to which beliefs derive from a default system and a critical system. One produces beliefs in a quasi-automatic, effortless way, the other in a slow, effortful way. I also argue that digital socio-epistemic environments tend to inculcate disvalues in their agent’s epistemic identity, a process that causes the cognitive short-circuits typical of conspiracy theories