A growing concern about misinformation may be hindering our ability to critically evaluate information, leading to a paradox where excessive worry about false information undermines trust in true ones.
The Big Idea: Do We Worry Too Much About Misinformation?
Seeing falsehoods everywhere is as damaging as believing too much. Our focus should be on helping people interpret information better.
Critical thinking is the systematic evaluation and analysis of information to form a judgment.
It involves observing, interpreting, and evaluating data to arrive at a conclusion.
Critical thinkers use logic, evidence, and reasoning to challenge assumptions and make informed decisions.
Research has shown that critical thinking skills are essential for academic success, professional development, and personal growth.
Studies have found that individuals with strong critical thinking skills outperform those without in various fields, including business, medicine, and law.
The War of the Worlds Broadcast: A Cautionary Tale
A US radio station broadcast a dramatisation of HG Wells‘s apocalyptic novel The War of the Worlds in 1938. Reports emerged of panicked audiences who had mistaken it for a news bulletin, with over a million people believing they were experiencing an actual Martian invasion. However, a subsequent academic study estimated that only 2% of listeners reported tuning into anything resembling the broadcast at the time.
Herbert George Wells, commonly known as HG Wells, was a British author, journalist, and sociologist.
Born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, Kent, England, he is best known for his science fiction novels that predicted futuristic technologies and societal changes.
His notable works include 'The Time Machine' (1895), 'The War of the Worlds' (1898), and 'The Invisible Man' (1897).
Wells was a prominent figure in the early 20th-century literary world, influencing many authors with his innovative ideas and writing style.
Misinformation refers to false or inaccurate information that is spread and believed by a large number of people.
It can be intentional, where the creator knows it's false, or unintentional, where the creator genuinely believes it's true.
Social media platforms have amplified the spread of misinformation, making it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.
According to a study, 62% of adults in the US believe that fake news has caused confusion among the public.
Misinformation can lead to serious consequences, including erosion of trust in institutions and fueling of social unrest.
The story is not all it appears to be. Despite oft-repeated claims, the mass panic did not occur as widely as thought. In reality, those who listened to the broadcast seemed aware that it was fiction, referring to ‘the play’ or its narrator Orson Welles. The academic analysis had misinterpreted listener accounts of being frightened by the drama as panic about a real-life invasion.
Misinformation: A Modern Problem?
Almost a century later, the idea of large-scale misinformation is more salient than ever. We regularly see headlines about millions exposed to falsehoods online. In a 2018 Gallup survey of Americans, respondents reckoned that two-thirds of the news they encountered on social media was misinformation. However, credible websites received 40 times more visits in early 2020 than questionable ones.
The Problem with Clamping Down on Misinformation
Outright misinformation may be rarer than we think; it is also only part of the problem when it comes to navigating fact and fiction. There are two errors we must avoid: believing things that are false, and discounting things that are true. If we focus solely on reducing belief in false content, as current efforts tend to do, we risk targeting one error at the expense of the other.
Clamping down on misinformation may have the effect of undermining belief in things that are true as well. The easiest way to never fall for misinformation is to simply never believe anything. This approach neglects the importance of critically evaluating information and finding ways to manage the risk that comes with trusting something correct.
The Dangers of Overscepticism
The damaging effects of overscepticism have made it a popular tool for those looking to undermine common knowledge. In 1969, a tobacco industry memo stated: ‘Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public.‘ This approach aims to undermine the idea that there could ever be enough evidence to act.
The Impact of Misinterpretation
Often, it is not outright falsehoods that sow doubt online. Last year a study found that among vaccine-related links viewed on Facebook during the spring 2021 Covid vaccine rollout, only 0.3% were flagged as false or out-of-context by factcheckers. Crucially, the posts that had the biggest overall impact on vaccine confidence were factually accurate but potentially open to misinterpretation.
Addressing Misinformation
When encountering conspiracy theorists, one of the things I’ve found surprising is how much of the evidence they have to hand is technically true. However, it’s not always the underlying facts that are false, but the beliefs that have been derived from them. Sure enough, there will be a logical fallacy or out-of-context interpretation propping them up somewhere.
More important than branding something ‘misinformation’ is the ability to find and address the flawed assumptions hiding among voluminous facts. We must give people the conceptual tools they need in order to spot skewed framing, sleight of hand, cherry-picked data, or muddled claims of cause and effect.
The Importance of Critical Thinking
Rather than either embracing or shunning all that we see, we must instead find ways to manage the risk that comes with trusting something correct. For example, in medicine, we typically design clinical trials in a way that reduces both the risk of concluding something works when it doesn’t, and the risk of concluding something doesn’t work when it does.
We can never have total certainty in a result, but we can still build enough confidence in what we uncover for it to be useful. This approach requires critical thinking and the ability to navigate complex information landscapes.
Believing that falsehoods are widespread and easily identified, or believing that most content is accurate and hence requires no further thought, are two equally convenient solutions. Both could harm our ability to tackle the much thornier reality of mistaken beliefs and misplaced trust online.
- theguardian.com | The big idea: do we worry too much about misinformation?
