From a range of political conspiracy theories to COVID-19 cures, we are living in a time of significant misinformation. Increasingly, people appear willing to live by 鈥渇acts鈥� that best suit their own viewpoints, making it difficult to determine what鈥檚 true and what鈥檚 false.
, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Peabody College, studies how people learn new information, and how to mitigate the effects of false information.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 different now is how quickly and how far misinformation can spread,鈥� Fazio says. 鈥淧articularly with COVID-19, there is a lack of good, truthful information because scientists don鈥檛 yet have all the answers. That鈥檚 a place where misinformation can really breed.鈥�
Though most of us believe we can identify false or misleading information, our brains often use 鈥渟hortcuts鈥� to fool us, Fazio says. 鈥淎s long as information is good enough and generally fits with what we鈥檙e expecting to hear, we don鈥檛 necessarily notice if there is an error.鈥�
Fazio says one way this happens is through knowledge neglect, where we may have the correct knowledge in our heads but fail to use that knowledge in the moment. Prior research also demonstrates that people often use unreliable cues, like repetition, to judge truth rather than more accurate cues, such as their prior knowledge or the source of the information.
In a recent study Fazio conducted with Vanderbilt undergraduates, students were more likely to agree with blatantly wrong statements鈥攕uch as, 鈥淭he part of the plant that grows underground is the stem鈥濃�攚hen they had been repeated.
鈥淲hen researchers talk about living in a post-truth world, they mean living in a society that doesn鈥檛 value the truth anymore, where people can lie without consequences and there鈥檚 no effort to get the correct information out there,鈥� Fazio says. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e there yet. I think Americans do value the truth, they value accuracy, and they want to see accurate information.鈥�
Here are a few tips from Fazio to avoid knowledge neglect and spreading misinformation.
1. Don鈥檛 trust your gut.
If reading something gives you an emotional reaction, that鈥檚 when you should stop to think about whether it鈥檚 true or false. 鈥淚f you think, 鈥榯his is so great, I can鈥檛 wait for someone else to see it,鈥� that鈥檚 your time to pause,鈥� says Fazio. Stop and ask, where does it come from? Is the source reputable? 鈥淥ne of the best things you can do to combat misinformation is to pause and think about what you鈥檙e reading rather than relying on your gut instinct.鈥�
2. Google it.
Grab the text of a headline or a few words from a social media post and enter it into Google to see what pops up. 鈥淎 lot of times you see either debunking of information or verification that it鈥檚 real,鈥� says Fazio. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 a real news article, there should be multiple recognizable news sources reporting that same information.鈥�
3. Seeing is not believing.
Manipulating images on social media and websites is one of the most prevalent forms of misinformation. However, readers can use search engines to determine an image鈥檚 legitimacy by checking to see if it has been posted before. 鈥淭hese images can be detected easily,鈥� Fazio says. 鈥淎nd in the future, it could be as simple as social media platforms keeping a database of these habitually reused images and labeling them as such.鈥�
4. Read before sharing (or commenting).
Don鈥檛 share stories without reading them first, Fazio suggests, adding that we all can play a role in improving the quality of information available online. 鈥淭here are a lot of forces at play that don鈥檛 always make it easy to discern what is true,鈥� she says, 鈥渂ut we all have a responsibility to promote accurate information online.鈥�