Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
A formal study entitled “Selective Exposure to Misinformation: Evidence from the consumption of fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign” has been published this month. Just to be totally clear here, the term is a reference to misinformation – news that is presented as true, but is instead partially or wholly false, and so … Read more
If asked to defined the term “Fake News” then like many of you I would have suggested that this describes a story that is presented as “True” but is not. It turns out that this is wrong and that to me was a great surprise. A recent Gallop poll has revealed something I had not … Read more
There are various well-established and well-known fact checkers that many rely upon, for example PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, or the Washington Post’s Fact Checker. However, one has to wonder if anybody independently fact-checks the fact checkers. I was curious about this and so looked into it to see if anybody had seriously researched it. To be honest, I would … Read more
Since we live in the age of “Fake News” and “Alternative Facts”, then knowing how people work out what is and is not actually true is something I find interesting, and I suspect I’m not alone in this. If I picked my personal top 10 most reliable news sources, you might simply agree, but then … Read more
I recently came across the claim that the well-known climate scientist Michael E Mann had ruined his long running defamation lawsuit by committing contempt of court. It was basically being tossed in my face by an anti-science guy as “evidence” a few days ago. Finding this being touted is perhaps not a surprise because if … Read more
The enabler of Fake News is that humans respond to information at an emotional level. We might indeed criticise “them” for living inside an information bubble, but the truth is that we are all as individuals crafting echo chambers to one degree or another by selecting information that agrees with our preconceived views and resisting … Read more