The Synchronization of Collective Beliefs: From Dyadic Interactions to Network Convergence

Systems of beliefs organized around religion, politics, and health constitute the building blocks of human communities. One central feature of these collectively held beliefs is their dynamic nature. Here, we study the dynamics of belief endorsement in lab-created 12-member networks using a 2-phase communication model. Individuals first evaluate the believability of a set of beliefs, after which, in Phase 1, some networks listen to a public speaker mentioning a subset of the previously evaluated beliefs while other networks complete a distracter task. In Phase 2, all participants engage in conversations within their network to discuss the initially evaluated beliefs. Believability is then measured both post conversation and after one week. We find that the public speaker impacts the community's beliefs by altering their mnemonic accessibility. This influence is long-lasting and amplified by subsequent conversations, resulting in community-wide belief synchronization. These findings point to optimal sociocognitive strategies for combating misinformation in social networks. Public Significance Statement Given that a community's collective beliefs meaningfully impact individual and collective behavior, it is important to ensure that accurate beliefs are disseminated through the population, while scientifically inaccurate beliefs are identified and swiftly corrected. Thus far, attempts to correct misinformation by refuting it have been implemented with limited success. We offer a sociocognitive framework to reduce believability of inaccurate beliefs in the community by reducing their mnemonic accessibility in a targeted fashion.