SH4008QA health and social care culture society and ethics Assignment Sample

Introduction Of health and social care culture society and ethics Assignment

With the Brexit referendum, many majority decisions were fuelled by fake news, mainly the £350 million per week sent by the UK to the EU. Even though its sources were corrected by experts, this figure affected the population’s cognitive perception of domestic politics and their votes, strengthening partisan divisions. Using this case for example, this paper shall discuss the different falsehoods and dilemmas that fuelled Brexit discourse and augmented social division. It also further discusses the issues of what it will take to dispel these beliefs and it will do so using such theories as confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and identity-protective cognition. The study will also point out recommendations for further courses of action stressing convincing communication, involvement of the power of emotion, and deliberative Democracy in remedying the effects of misinformation.

Description

This paper focuses on the conceptualization of one of the major concerns of nearly half the British populace, namely the appropriateness of the Brexit referendum slogan, citing £350 million per week given to the EU. This figure became iconic when it was emblazoned on the side of the Vote Leave campaign bus that toured the UK during the 2016 referendum. Contrary to the specific statement by various professionals like the UK Statistics Authority that the claim is inaccurate, numerous people believe it is true. The focus of attention is made on such values as inaccurate information, its influence on the perception of people and their activities, as well as on political processes. The claim was miscalculated because the UK received £3.1 billion in annual rebates; payments from the EU; and economic adjuncts associated with single-market membership. Realists estimated that the correct figure was nearer £136 million per week, compared to the £170 million that had been proclaimed. The continued existence of such a notion however poses several important questions. First, theirs gives priority to the sentimental and biased aspect of public opinion. In this case, a vast number of voters based their attitudes to Brexit depending on stories, rather than facts that were deemed most accurate (Favell, 2020). That is why the two groups that could have been easily convinced to believe that the money was real were Conservative and Leave voters, with the latter consisting of 61% of the total number of respondents. Interestingly, only 22% of Liberal Democrat voters and 23% of Remain voters said they believed the claim. This division helps explain how misinformation acts to harden existing cleavages in society so that agreement and/or reconciliation becomes more difficult. Another big problem – fact-checking, fails to create the desired results(Stone, 2018). Contrary to dismissals by credible authorities and scientific data that has contested the myth, public perceptions of foreigners have continued to be as negative as they were initially after the Brexit vote (Asthana & Stewart, 2020). This inertial suggests that overcoming misinformation is not just the process of presenting correct figures, but also healing the permanent affective and cognitive postures that people have towards their reality. For instance, Professor Bobby Duffy from King’s College London mentioned that changes in peoples’ minds are often informed more by feelings rather than reason making it difficult for the stakeholders to influence the public. Moreover, the case extends more misperceptions of Brexit individuals, predominantly the immigration aspect and the effect on health care service delivery. For instance, some people argue that immigration has affected the NHS negatively, but the Migration Advisory Committee revealed a fact that EU migrants pay more in taxes than the amount they access health care services. These are discrepancies, shaped by political stories, that demonstrate the impossibility of generating rational discussion within the contemporary political sphere (Pennycook and Rand, 2021).

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Discussion

Issue 1: Misinformation and Public Perception

Issue and Implications for Stakeholders

Brexit is an example of how this technique of presenting fake news works in manipulating people and changing the course of politics. This problem is rather acute for different constituencies: ordinary people, politicians, government, and media. To the public, having faith in this fake news was a determinant of voting intent during Brexit which saw many voting for the exit from the EU. Some politicians used the assertion particularly those from the Vote Leave campaign to manipulate people into action. For the government, it has remained to precipitate political and social polarisation, indicating that there is no common ground when it comes to the diverse approaches to Brexit. The same can be said of the media, which has both helped to disseminate it and challenge it, although with somewhat less effect on the public(Humprecht, Esser and Van Aelst, 2020).

Connection to Theories and Other Works

This issue relates to the topic of confirmation bias, which is one of the most widely studied psychological quirks, that implies the preferential search for, perception of, and recalling of data that is consistent with the initial beliefs of a person. Studies on misinformation have revealed that once people develop a particular belief, they tend to believe only that which reaffirms that belief regardless of its veracity . The Elaboration Likelihood Model can also account for this effect by saying that, persons receiving low perceptual fluency, and or low elaboration level are likely to be influenced by simple appeals such as the ‘bus slogan’ (Petty and Briñol, 2012).

Suggested Solutions and Evaluation

Often these misperceptions are further fostered by the mental and affective processes that support such beliefs. The public campaigns designed to debunk the £350 million claim have to rise above the mere effective factual rebuttal. Presumably, techniques like raising media sensitivity, and awareness and or encouraging people to analyse information critically as well as appealing to the emotions of people against the existing social norms may be more appropriate. But this is where the problem is: biases that are rather hard to overcome, which means that even if there are corrective messages out there, people are unlikely to listen. Furthermore, reliance on political ratings might put people into biases they cannot let go of and, therefore, ignore any fact that goes against those biases. One possible intervention might include replacing identified Spears’ narratives with more accurate ones, which can also be culturally sensitive (Lewandowsky, Ecker and Cook, 2017).

Issue 2: Emotional and Cognitive Biases

Issue and Implications for Stakeholders

That £350 million has been used to spread the ideas and experience of the brain and emotion and to influence public opinion is an indisputable fact. The result of several investigations has exposed this rumour as false; however, people still had faith in it because of emotions that connected to specific political beliefs and the concern for national sovereignty. This issue impacts voters as well as the campaigns, and other public entities at large. To voters, it may not have been important whether the statement given was true or false but the emotions which the claim brought out in the voters guided the voting decision. Such feelings were exploited in political campaigns to portray the claim of regaining power from the EU. These biases contribute to the difficulties faced by public institutions, particularly those institutions now charged with managing Brexit policy, in pursuing the goal of creating a better-informed electorate (McGimpsey, Tannock and Lauder, 2016).

Reference to Theories and Related Research

This issue is closely connected with motivated reasoning (Kunda 1990) in which people filter information through the prism of what they want to see and reject the information that opens most perspectives they do not like. Cognitive impact is also at work, inferring that political attitude is more an emotional than rational response. Regarding Brexit voting, the reactions of citizens were emotional: the issues including immigration and national identity overshadowed such aspects as rationality and critical analysis of the information because it created a corresponding narrative around which they rallied (Parnell, 2023).

Suggested Solutions and Evaluation

An example of the suggested approaches will be using appeals to emotion in counter-messaging efforts. Nabi (2002) notes that feelings elicited while viewing programs can be even more effective than statistics and figures. When it comes to beliefs it holds that campaigns with appeals to fair play, pride, or nationalism, may for example be more effective at getting voters to re-evaluate their beliefs. However, this approach should be done sensitively to avoid ripping the parties apart even more. Righteous emotions can also be used to manipulate such presentations to aggravate preexisting prejudices; the core message needs to avoid extreme emotions altogether while ensuring accuracy (Birks, no date).

Issue 3: Polarization and Societal Divisions

Issue and Implications for Stakeholders

It was established that the belief in the £350 million claim has helped to deepen polarization in British society. And this division has consequences in terms of political language and social identity. The general public, as well as politicians, have grown more divided on this subject and this makes it nearly impossible for political leaders to make citizens come to a common ground and work towards finding solutions as well as coming up with productive arguments concerning post Brexit policies. While the logical nature may be a capable cognitive style in persuading other people, voters, in turn, might have difficulties in the synthesis of conflicting positions which thus might expand their polarization. It means that the British people’s view of Brexit matters is polarized based on political affiliations, and the two sides could hardly agree on the objective truth (BBC News, 2016).

Connection to Theories and Other Scholarly Works

The concept of identity-protective cognition (Kahan et al., 2017) will apply here since people tend to support views that are familiar to their identity. When it comes to the issue of Brexit, the people, who supported Brexit, may report the fake news that supported Brexit, while the supporters of remaining in the European Union may reject the fake news. This division is compounded by the echo chamber effect in which people are provided with information only about what they want to hear and barred from information that they do not wish to receive (Moss, Robinson and Watts, 2020).

Suggested Solutions and Evaluation

To avoid such a situation, the state can promote deliberative democracy, to make the people sit down and have a healthy conversation regardless of the political divide they belong to. Education programs that encourage people to have productive discussions and debates about Brexit may be useful in closing the divide between those in each camp. Research reveals that the use of, cross-perspective communication may result in improved attitude and increased orientation toward balance when dealing with a variety of perspectives on a given issue. But the dilemma is to find ways on how people feel comfortable to air their disagreeing stance at the same time without offending one another, which is the essence of dialogue and deliberation. Further, ideological change to supersede the current partisan divides is going to be long drawn given the cultural and social corrosion that feeds these divides (Hobolt, Leeper and Tilley, 2020).

Conclusion / Recommendations

Thus, the endurance of the £350 million assertion demonstrates that falsehoods, people’s feelings, and political divisions predominate once again. These factors precipitated Brexit, and more particularly, the social divisions and mistrust that pollute British society. Thus, the case shows that misinformation must be fought by conveying the targeted information based on facts and instincts as well as appealing to the emotions of populations and helpful ideas of countering cognitive biases.

Recommendations to resolve this case include:

• Promoting Media Literacy: Promoting the critical evaluation of media also assists in the evaluation of information sources hence minimizing the effects of misinformation. Another reason suggests public enlightenment as the surest way of changing the desired lasting impact: people need to be taught how to distinguish between genuine and fake sources.
• Engaging Emotional Appeals in Counter-Narratives: Fact-based rebuttals alone are insufficient. Voter appeals that employ the use of emotional-based messages and/or link them with key cultural values of any given country may be more effective on people who reject rational messages.
• Fostering Constructive Dialogue: The exchange of information between conflicting parties wants to decrease the gap between them. I believe that deliberative democracy initiatives can assist people in reconsidering themselves and their ideas with the appropriate attitude toward others.

These recommendations should be designed to head off the pass the sources of misinformation by combating the psychological biases and emotional elements that give rise to the phenomenon, as well as social fragmentation. Though these strategies are rather demanding, they may result in an educated and integrated society.

References

• Asthana, A., & Stewart, H. (2020, February 4). Leave campaign’s £350m claim was too low, says Boris Johnson. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/15/leave-campaigns-350m-claim-was-too-low-says-boris-johnson
• BBC News (2016) EU referendum campaigns ;misleading voters.; https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36397732.
• Birks, J. (no date) ;Fact-checking false claims and propaganda in the age of post-truth politics: the Brexit referendum,; in Fact-checking false claims and propaganda in the age of post-truth politics: the Brexit referendum. https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/preview/5462614/Handbook%20of%20Political%20Propaganda%20-%20accepted%20version.pdf.
• Favell, A. (2020). Crossing the Race Line: “No Polish, No Blacks, No Dogs” in Brexit Britain? or, the Great British Brexit Swindle. In Research in political sociology (pp. 103–130). https://doi.org/10.1108/s0895-993520200000027012
• Hobolt, S.B., Leeper, T.J. and Tilley, J. (2020) ;Divided by the vote: Affective polarization in the wake of the Brexit referendum,; British Journal of Political Science, 51(4), pp. 1476–1493. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123420000125.
• Humprecht, E., Esser, F. and Van Aelst, P. (2020) ;Resilience to Online Disinformation: A Framework for Cross-National Comparative Research,; The International Journal of Press/Politics, 25(3), pp. 493–516. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161219900126.
• Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U.K.H. and Cook, J. (2017) ;Beyond misinformation: Understanding and coping with the “post-truth” era.,; Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 6(4), pp. 353–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.07.008.
• McGimpsey, I., Tannock, S. and Lauder, H. (2016) ;Postcapitalism: a guide to our future,; British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(7), pp. 1077–1090. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2016.1223702.
• Moss, J., Robinson, E. and Watts, J. (2020) ;Brexit and the Everyday Politics of Emotion: Methodological Lessons from History,; Political Studies, 68(4), pp. 837–856. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321720911915.
• Parnell, T. (2023) ;Brexit and disinformation,; in Routledge eBooks, pp. 187–200. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003224495-15.
• Pennycook, G. and Rand, D.G. (2021) ;The psychology of fake news,; Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(5), pp. 388–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.02.007.
• Petty, R.E. and Briñol, P. (2012) ;The elaboration likelihood model,; in SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks, pp. 224–245. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249215.n12.
• Stone, J. (2018) ;British public still believe Vote Leave ‘£350million a week to EU’ myth from Brexit referendum | The Independent,; The Independent, 28 October. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/vote%20-leave-brexit-lies-eu-pay-money-%20remain-poll-boris-johnson-a8603646.html.