On the uses and abuses of celebrity epistemic power
Archer,Alfred Alfano,Mark Dennis,Matthew
Archer,Alfred
Alfano,Mark
Dennis,Matthew
Abstract
The testimonies of celebrities affect the lives of their many followers who pay attention to what they say. This gives celebrities a high degree of epistemic power, which has come under scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper investigates the duties that arise from this power. We argue that celebrities have a negative duty of testimonial justice not to undermine trust in authoritative sources by spreading misinformation or directing attention to untrustworthy sources. Moreover, celebrities have a general imperfect duty to try to correct for an unjust distribution of attention by redirecting it to those who deserve it. During a pandemic this may become a perfect one, due to the harm that could be prevented if people follow the advice of experts. Relatedly, we argue that celebrities have an imperfect duty to promote behavior that will reduce the spread of a pandemic. We outline three ways they might do so: they might take on the position of a role model, they may act as a salience magnet or they can direct people’s attention towards others who have taken on these roles.
Description
Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Date
2022
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Keywords
Celebrity, epistemic justice, epistemic power, trust
Citation
Archer, A, Alfano, M & Dennis, M 2022, 'On the uses and abuses of celebrity epistemic power', Social Epistemology. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2022.2153351