This research explores the spread of unreliable information on Facebook during the 2017 French presidential campaign. By analyzing information-sharing behavior on 252 Facebook pages, our study highlights the wide variety of information sources shared by several political communities, notably news published by partisan websites or activist blogs. Our results demonstrate that political parties – particularly, those on the extreme ends of the political spectrum – tend to re-share a large amount of information reflecting the same ideological positions as their own. (...) This trend is amplified by a phenomenon of endo-citation, that is, a “circular circulation” of information between Facebook pages within the same political community. Our results focus on the information practices of the far-right, tracing a clear over-representation of sources that are unreliable or likely to relay disinformation. We argue that this circular transmission of information creates an “unreliable information bubble” that characterizes far-right information-sharing behavior. (shrink)

Gentle handling of mammals , and lizards , but not of frogs and fish elevated the set-point for body temperature, i.e., produced an emotional fever, achieved only behaviourally in lizards. Heart rate, another detector of emotion in mammals, was also accelerated by gentle handling, from ca. 70 b/min to ca. 110 b/min in lizards. This tachycardia faded in about 10 min. The same handling did not significantly modify the frogs’ heart rates. The absence of emotional tachycardia in frogs and its (...) presence in lizards , together with the emotional fever exhibited by mammals and reptiles, but not by frogs or fish, would suggest that emotion emerged in the evolutionary lineage between amphibians and reptiles. Such a conclusion would imply that reptiles possess consciousness with its characteristic hedonic dimension, pleasure. The role of sensory pleasure in decision making was therefore verified in iguanas placed in a motivational conflict. To be able to reach a bait , the iguanas had to leave a warm refuge, provided with standard food, and had to venture into a cold environment. The results showed that lettuce was not necessary to the iguanas and that they traded off the palatability of the bait against the disadvantage of the cold. Thus, the behaviour of the iguanas was possibly produced, as it is in humans, through the maximization of sensory pleasure. Altogether, these results may indicate that the first elements of mental experience emerged between amphibians and reptiles. (shrink)

There are two sorts of scientists: Dionysians, who rely on intuition, and Apollonians, who are more systematic. Self-experimentation is a Dionysian approach that is likely to open new lines of research. Unfortunately, the Dionysian approach does not allow one to predict the results of experiments. That is one reason why self-experimentation is not popular among granting agencies.

Baron has provided some examples of nonconsequentialism in decision making and describes them as biases; these may be the remnants of the biological origin of decision making. One may argue that decisions are made on the basis not of rationality but affective processes. Behavior follows the trend toward maximizing pleasure. This mechanism might explain apparent nonconsequentialism.

La recherche universitaire doit plus que jamais composer avec les intérêts d’un nombre croissant de partenaires. Le cas de la distinction entre soin expérimental et soin innovateur souligne l’importance de l’éthique de la recherche en tant que responsabilité partagée ; cela exige de repenser la frontière entre la pratique clinique et l’expérimentation sur l’humain. Or, définir ce qu’est une « nouvelle pratique » n’est pas chose simple. Selon quels critères – et ceux de qui, au nom de quoi? – juge-t-on (...) qu’une modification apportée à une pratique reconnue est suffisamment importante pour constituer de la recherche? Du bilan de la situation actuelle en France et au Canada, la présente étude entend faciliter le dialogue entre ceux qui ont à gérer ensemble cette responsabilité, soit le chercheur et le clinicien, l’institution où s’effectue leurs travaux ou celle qui les approuve, l’organisme privé ou public qui les finance, ainsi que les ministères et organismes professionnels concernés. (shrink)