We live in a world in which we are inundated with information, from sources both trustworthy and decidedly untrustworthy. If you have been paying attention to the news over the past decade you will have seen or heard the words ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation.’
Here is a concise description of each of them, per the Reader’s Digest:
- Misinformation is false, misleading, or out-of-context content shared without an intent to deceive.
- Disinformation is purposefully false or misleading content shared with an intent to deceive and cause harm.
The first could be categorized as an ‘oops,’ and the second as a ‘gotcha.’ Unvetted rumor and gossip would be included in the first category. Conspiracy theories, flat Earth contention, climate change denial, and Holocaust denial would fall into the second category. Deliberate disinformation feeds hatred and cruelty. Sorting the facts from the fallacious takes time, patience, and simple explanation.
At a rally in a suburban Philadelphia town recently, a peaceful protestor carried a sign that spoke about anti-Semitism and transphobia. A group of teenage boys approached her and asked what the sign meant. She defined the terms in this way. “Anti-Semitism is hating Jewish people simply because they are Jewish. Transphobia is fearing or hating transgender people because of who they are. Their gender at birth doesn’t match who they know themselves to be. Neither group of people are harmful to you.” The person who was explaining saw it as a teachable moment, in particular, because she is a classroom teacher. A friend who was with her added, “You don’t have to understand or accept people as they are. You just don’t get to make their lives harder because of who they are.”
The 24-hour news cycle and the immediacy of posts on social media don’t always provide the opportunity to stop and consider fact from fiction. Some things look like they could be true or like something a public figure might have said, so we share with abandon.
The reasons behind deliberate disinformation can be condensed down to an agenda to perpetrate. If I want to sell you something, I am going to do everything I can to convince you that what I have to offer will meet your needs better than what someone else has to offer. Essentially, I will attempt to ‘sell you a bill of goods.’ Will you buy it? That depends on your awareness that you are being scammed.
In the era of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts,’ it can be easy to pull the wool over the eyes of people who want to believe what they are being fed. Folks will do what they deem necessary to support their entrenched beliefs, and practice cognitive dissonance.
Humans are data gathering beings and want to feel informed. Our filters are not always active to be able to screen what is true. We engage in confirmation bias, which is a mechanism by which we shut out evidence to the contrary of what we already believe. The ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ method of news casting has us on high alert and gets encoded in our nervous system, so we tend to integrate it into our mindset. Illusory truth effect puts us at the mercy of repetition. The more we see or hear something, the more we accept it.
Those who dispense disinformation prey on our emotions of anger and fear. Humans tend to dislike what they fear and don’t understand. Disinformation is a powerful weapon. In the era of runaway technology, deep fakes and photoshop can distort reality.
So, how can we vet the information coming in?
- When you see something that seems too good to be true, it probably is. Miracle cures and quick fixes fall into that category.
- When you see something that looks like a scam, it probably is. One example is those social media posts that seem concerned about a missing child, elder or animal. If there is no contact information or if the message says, ‘bump this post,’ it is an indication. If the person posting it has few or no friends on their page or if it is from a real estate or community group, it is an indication as well. Type the description into your browser and it is likely that the same photo will show up all over the world.
- Do your due diligence. The fact checking sites Snopes, USA Facts, Factcheck.org can help you determine truth from lies. Here is a comprehensive list of fact-checking websites.