Misinformation is the spread of false or mistaken information that wasn’t necessarily created to harm you. It includes hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and fake news stories. People are more likely to be drawn to conspiracy theories when they feel uncertain and powerless, and regard themselves as marginalized victims. In his book, Thinking, fast and slow, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman refers to our rational, slow thought process as System 2, and our impulsive, impulsive, impulsive, and impulsive, rational, slow thought process as System 3. Conspiracy theories and other forms of misinformation spread unchecked due to our tendency to affiliate and identify with groups.
Simple interventions to reduce the spread of misinformation can shift people’s attention toward accuracy and help them become more discerning about the veracity of the information. A new analysis in Cambridge, Mass., reviews research on attempts to counteract conspiracy theories. Zhang provides tips on how to tell if a story you come across on social media is real or fake.
Misinformation is defined as “any information that is demonstrably false or otherwise misleading, regardless of its”. Breaking news moves fast online, and it can be difficult to tell what’s real and what’s purposefully misleading or fake. Over 80 of EU citizens see fake news both as an issue for their own well-being and as false information shared with no intention of causing harm.
Conspiration theories can even motivate some individuals or groups to engage in violence. False narratives about the 2020 US elections should not be treated as synonymous with conspiracy theories, but they complement studies finding that most “fake news” is shared.
📹 Why People Believe Fake News, Myths, & Conspiracy Theories: Brendan Nyhan at JFN2018
Misperceptions about politics, healthcare, and other subjects can undermine public debate and distort people’s choices and …
📹 How false news can spread – Noah Tavlin
Dive into the phenomenon known as circular reporting and how it contributes to the spread of false news and misinformation.
As a teenager I find it fascinating how many grown adults blindly follow big media or things they see while scrolling through fb or ig without any questioning. I always thought “how did these ppl get fooled” when looking back at history and the many instances of propaganda and lying for the personal gain of one man. I just wish ppl would get out of their social bubble and denial.
Parents are some of the worst about this. And it’s sad, because their intentions are always for the better. But they get lied to by the media they’re supposed to trust, and that translates to very real risks for themselves and their families, as well as those around them. Critical thinking and ways of verifying information absolutely should be taught in schools – alongside practical law (as a year-long class, with government classes also year-long), psychology, some of the basics of civil engineering (tie it in with mathematics – it’s much more practical that way), biology/health (tie the two together please), teen living, etc. The lack of one or all of these things contributes heavily to people not knowing much of anything about how the world around them works. And this is easily one of the things I hated most about school, was its absolute lack of practicality.
@TED-Ed I have a tagalog compositon song and this article is really accurate on the lyrics. It’s incredible that when I made a article presentation using your article– “Think before you open your mouth” says the lyrics and the article goes to a male who started talking using megaphone . DA**! So accurate! Thanks for this article, such an honor to use this on my composition. You guys have credits on it. 🥰
False news spreads whenever the original source of the “news” is less concerned with the actual truth of the situation and more concerned with an agenda. It then spreads when the people hearing it don’t bother to question if the information they get is factual, which is easier when it already somewhat reinforces their own ideas. It’s very difficult for someone to put aside their own personal filter and take themselves out of the story, especially since journalism has moved away from doing so. Thus it’s nearly impossible to get good information anymore. You can’t get it from corporate news, Facebook, any news outlet on the internet, or anywhere on YouTube. Instead of simply reporting events they all (pretty much admittedly) have a left/right, racial, political, gender, or religious bias. Even if just facts are presented, due to the complex nature of our world, what facts are chosen to be presented will have an effect on the recipient.
that’s some thing I want more people to hear. I have been looking at a lot of news reports and misinformation comes from BOTH Liberals and Conservatives . There is a lot out there that is highly subspinous or easy to prove wrong. But people hear a story call it truth and just refuse to hear any farther stories.
All I was thinking when the whole autism part came up is all the people who think that the whole scientific community is part of some giant conspiracy along with farmacys in order to make millions of cash or whatever. Made me chuckle and frown as I know there’s dumb people out there who think its true…
Amazing article! Very informative. I wonder if we could we contribute with Portuguese (Brazilian) translation for subtitles. We are a bilingual cultural center in Brasilia (Brazil cpital) and we run educational programs to fight disinformation, and it would be instrumental to have this TedTalk in portuguese. If you are interested, please let us know.
None of our beliefs are quite true; all have at least a penumbra of vagueness and error. The methods of increasing the degree of truth in our beliefs are well known; they consist in hearing all sides, trying to ascertain all the relevant facts, controlling our own bias by discussion with people who have the opposite bias, and cultivating a readiness to discard any hypothesis which has proved inadequate. These methods are practised in science, and have built up the body of scientific knowledge. Every man of science whose outlook is truly scientific is ready to admit that what passes for scientific knowledge at the moment is sure to require correction with the progress of discovery; nevertheless, it is near enough to the truth to serve for most practical purposes, though not for all. In science, where alone something approximating to genuine knowledge is to be found, men’s attitude is tentative and full of doubt. ~ Bertrand Russell ~
BuzzFeed posted a article showing how ‘sinning is good for you’, and a bunch of blogs and many people cite out how ‘cussing is good for you’ even performing a simple experiment explaining that sailors can endure pain 40 seconds longer than goody two shoes, apparently it looks like the goody two shoes didn’t like ice water or the sailors decided to push their limits too far and masked expressions of pain and tricked the scientists to concluding that cussing is good for you. Sinning is not good for you either, BuzzFeed describes the seven deadly sins and their ‘benefits’, but wrath can give you heart problems, sloth could affect your bones, greed and envy can make you fall into fire (derives from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movies), pride can make others around you feel bad (even Ni Hao Kai Lan goes against it), lust can get you into trouble (with all that disgusting sexual nonsense and stuff), and gluttony can give you a stomachache (which would require alot of ‘vurping’ as one of the Wreck it Ralph characters put it). The idea that the end of the world is nigh has been a recent thing, Y1K worried people long ago, and people feared 1666, which was nothing but a fire in London, December 21 2012 was a popular pick, but Harold Camping convinced a few that it would be 2011 the end would be imminent, November 11 2013 thankfully failed, some people went on to say that a supervolcano would doom us in 2013/2014, some say we might as well have bad news in September/October 2015, but no one knows the day or hour and it would be at an hour no one expects.
There was once a legend that sanãtana dharma is not just religion called Hinduism but the way of life😂 And that there are no.of species in the sanãtana dharma that have still not been discovered but is slowly unrevealing And that we should not think as just a state,or a nation,or a region but more than that as a human kind,Be what it means to be human being and work together as a whole world (Vasudhaiva Kutumbakum: world as a one family) to protect the nature of the world and its innocent creatures Which were created by the celestial alien race and that we should be immortal by transferring our concious into autobots( leaving this perishable body and becoming celestial beings) and leave Earth to heal itself and also leave the vast knowledge of vedas to the current apes which might one day become human being. Credit: Michio Kaku / movie; Chappie ⬆️ Just a fictional story or you can also call it constructer theory but think about it
independant .. research! I,m gonna have my car have its anual check again, i,m gonna do that in a garage that only does check ups it does not repair anything itself, nore does it recommend other garage’s hence it is impossible for that garage to make cash out of bogus car checks, it is independant, therefor more trustworthy when are we gonna crowdfund media outlets so they no longer have to relie on politicial parties, broadcasts, shareholders and lobbyism?
The internet has an ocean of misinformation one very good example is quora and over the year’s I’ve found a lot of mistakes on Wikipedia, main stream media is the biggest and the King of misinformation, as the old saying goes a computer is only as good as it’s programmer and it seems we have more idiots these days than in the past two decades. 🤪🇺🇲
For least biased news sources, click on: mediabiasfactcheck.com/center/ Then simply scroll down the page until you see the list of links in red. Click on those that catch your eye. For example, the first on in the list is: 9News – KUSA (9news.com) Click on it and you’ll find at the bottom of the detailed report given about this Denver TV station, you’ll find their link to click on that takes you to their website: Source: 9news.com/ Each different news source is given a detailed report. At the end of each report is the link to their website. Bookmark those that appeal to you. Many will offer to send you their newsletter. Note that it is easy to unsubscribe at any point in time if and when you want to. By adding and deleting news sources and/or newsletters, you can curate news that fits your needs best.
Behold, ye received it on your tongues, and said out of your mouths things of which ye had no knowledge; and ye thought it to be a light matter, while it was most serious in the sight of God*. And why did ye not, when ye heard it, say?-” It is not right of us to speak of this: Glory to God! this is a most serious slander!”. Holy Quran, chapter 24; Al Nur (The Light) verse 15 & 16. * Allah Subhana Wata’ala; Most Gracious, Most Merciful.