Random links

Ethan Mollick on Twitter
Pointer to a research paper - makes sense but seems potentially a bit dangerous in current political environment: "Tell students: “Your goal is to feel awkward and uncomfortable.” Giving an explicit goal of aiming to feel uncomfortable in order to grow makes folks persist in classes, write better, seek out more info & learn more from political opponents."
Woodward and Bernstein Didn’t Act Alone: If not for their competitors, Nixon would probably have survived Watergate
"Almost none of the first year’s revelations about Watergate came from 'real' political reporters, who for the most part trusted Nixon’s denials and mingled at swanky Georgetown cocktail parties." (HT: Paul Thacker, who point out its similarity media behaviour re: lab leak possibility)
Laurent Cordonier on Twitter
"1/ Our new preprint with @F_Cafiero on the link between #corruption and #conspiracy_beliefs. We show across 26 Western and non-Western countries that higher corruption levels are associated with greater belief in conspiracy theories. A thread" Phrased differently, conspiracy thinking is strongest where conspiracies are more likely?