| I find this a rather depressing study 09:25 - Nov 12 with 1802 views | StokieBlue |
The study from the University of Texas in Austin shows what I think most of us already suspect from spending any time online or even on this forum:
https://news.utexas.edu/2019/11/05/fake-news-isnt-easy-to-spot-on-facebook-accor
Basically the students continued to believe news stories which aligned with their pre-exsisting beliefs even when they were clearly marked as being fake. This is worrying given they "should" be better at evaluation sources than the general public at large.
Some interesting bits:
"As they worked through the exercise, the participants spent more time and showed significantly more activity in their frontal cortices – the brain area associated with arousal, memory access and consciousness – when headlines supported their beliefs but were flagged as false. These reactions of discomfort indicated cognitive dissonance when headlines supporting their beliefs were marked as untrue.
But this dissonance was not enough to make participants change their minds. They overwhelmingly said that headlines conforming with their preexisting beliefs were true, regardless of whether they were flagged as potentially fake. The flag did not change their initial response to the headline, even if it did make them pause a moment longer and study it a bit more carefully.
Political affiliation made no difference in their ability to determine what was true or false"
A good summary:
“The fact that social media perpetuates and feeds this bias complicates people’s ability to make evidence-based decisions,” she said. “But if the facts that you do have are polluted by fake news that you truly believe, then the decisions you make are going to be much worse.”
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| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:32 - Nov 12 with 1773 views | BlueBadger |
Balls. |  |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:45 - Nov 12 with 1740 views | Darth_Koont |
Truly frightening.
Feels like politics and the media are lagging behind society which, in general, has become much more evidence-based. I can imagine people put an awful lot more effort into fact-checking and cross-referencing different sources for their choice of holiday or new TV than they do into the politicians they're voting for.
But when we increasingly see politicians' (or columnists') opinions presented as the news itself, it kind of reinforces that we're now meant to step back from the facts and purely think in terms of narrative and identity. |  |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:48 - Nov 12 with 1734 views | Swansea_Blue |
So are you saying Knudsen wasn't sh*t after all?
Good piece that. I spend very little time on social media outside of this forum. Twitter's the only place I will dip into quickly and then only for verified accounts of known people that can be trusted (or at least where their perspectives/biases are known). There's so much rubbish on there though that defies evidence, so I'm assuming there are substantial number paid tweeters/bots.
There is quite an easy way to discern what's true though - don't believe anything until you can verify that it's true. If you can't verify something, park it in the 'not sure' box. |  |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:49 - Nov 12 with 1732 views | lowhouseblue |
and ironically everyone will read your post and think: "aren't other people stupid, but fortunately this confirms the truth of everything I already think." |  |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:57 - Nov 12 with 1711 views | longtimefan |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:45 - Nov 12 by Darth_Koont |
Truly frightening.
Feels like politics and the media are lagging behind society which, in general, has become much more evidence-based. I can imagine people put an awful lot more effort into fact-checking and cross-referencing different sources for their choice of holiday or new TV than they do into the politicians they're voting for.
But when we increasingly see politicians' (or columnists') opinions presented as the news itself, it kind of reinforces that we're now meant to step back from the facts and purely think in terms of narrative and identity. |
"I can imagine people put an awful lot more effort into fact-checking and cross-referencing different sources for their choice of holiday or new TV than they do into the politicians they're voting for."
I'm not sure they really do. The number of people I've heard in Tesco's electrical department saying "ooh that Tv's bigger and its the same price as the smaller one" as their purchase decision is staggering. Clearly buying on impulse with no research whatsoever. |  | | |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:02 - Nov 12 with 1686 views | Darth_Koont |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:57 - Nov 12 by longtimefan |
"I can imagine people put an awful lot more effort into fact-checking and cross-referencing different sources for their choice of holiday or new TV than they do into the politicians they're voting for."
I'm not sure they really do. The number of people I've heard in Tesco's electrical department saying "ooh that Tv's bigger and its the same price as the smaller one" as their purchase decision is staggering. Clearly buying on impulse with no research whatsoever. |
Yeah, it's not a hard and fast rule.
But at least they're not buying the smaller one, thinking it's the bigger one, which seems to be what politics is becoming all about. | |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:02 - Nov 12 with 1683 views | Darth_Koont |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 09:49 - Nov 12 by lowhouseblue |
and ironically everyone will read your post and think: "aren't other people stupid, but fortunately this confirms the truth of everything I already think." |
QED | |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:09 - Nov 12 with 1658 views | lowhouseblue |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:02 - Nov 12 by Darth_Koont |
QED |
i read a news story today about a former australian ambassador saying that if corbyn is elected australia would have to reduce intelligence sharing with the uk because a corbyn government would have too many conflicts. that story obviously aligns with my own view and my instinct was to believe it. then I thought, actually I don't know who this guy is, i don't know what axe he has to grind, i don't know the context in which it was said, and i don't have time to look any of it up. so I mentally filed it under 'meh'.
so ner. | |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:12 - Nov 12 with 1648 views | DanTheMan |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:09 - Nov 12 by lowhouseblue |
i read a news story today about a former australian ambassador saying that if corbyn is elected australia would have to reduce intelligence sharing with the uk because a corbyn government would have too many conflicts. that story obviously aligns with my own view and my instinct was to believe it. then I thought, actually I don't know who this guy is, i don't know what axe he has to grind, i don't know the context in which it was said, and i don't have time to look any of it up. so I mentally filed it under 'meh'.
so ner. |
That's the hard thing isn't it? Fighting your own brain rather than just giving in.
In the internet we've created something where you can instantly confirm your own biases as you don't have to care whether it's real or not. And it affects us all.
I don't see an easy solution, as we're effectively having to fight our own biology. |  |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:16 - Nov 12 with 1632 views | lowhouseblue |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:12 - Nov 12 by DanTheMan |
That's the hard thing isn't it? Fighting your own brain rather than just giving in.
In the internet we've created something where you can instantly confirm your own biases as you don't have to care whether it's real or not. And it affects us all.
I don't see an easy solution, as we're effectively having to fight our own biology. |
and the only short cut is to find sources you trust. but that trust still needs to be highly sceptical. | |
| And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show |
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| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:19 - Nov 12 with 1616 views | StokieBlue |
| I find this a rather depressing study on 10:16 - Nov 12 by lowhouseblue |
and the only short cut is to find sources you trust. but that trust still needs to be highly sceptical. |
It's worse than that though. The students seriously thought about the articles marked as false (as seen by the ECG) but managed to reason their way around it so they could believe the story anyway.
If it's that difficult to counter the cognitive dissonance then it's going to be hard for many to consider even fact checking what they are reading - why would they need to if they have decided it's true....
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| Avatar - IC410 - Tadpoles Nebula |
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