In the rise of social media, we are often exposed to misinformation online.
Misinformation is referring to information that is false or inaccurate, and is often spread widely with others, regardless of an intent to deceive.
Thus, it can be sum up that misinformation come from telling false information that results from an honest mistake.
A professor of psychology at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, Stephan Lewandowsky said, “The fundamental problem with misinformation is that once people have heard it, they tend to believe and act on it, even after it’s been corrected,”
Schwarz identified five criteria that people use to decide whether information is true.
They are compatibility with other known information, credibility of the source, whether others believe it, whether the information is internally consistent, and whether there is supporting evidence.
With so much disinformation spreading through social media, credibility of the story is very important.
According to an article by Business Insider featuring Brian Southwell, who is an author, social scientist, professor, and director at RTI International (a non-profit research institute) if one come across information with the following characteristics, it is therefore should be considered as suspicious:
- If it seems too good to be true
- If it plays to your own implicit biases
- If it elicits either extreme positive or negative emotions
- If it’s not properly sourced, or the stats appear out of date
And among the details that you need to consider to check includes:
- The author
- The organization
- The date it was published
- The evidence
- What other sources say
Awareness is key when it comes to identifying what is the accurate information and what is not.
Southwell noted that before believing in the information received, one should always try to figure out where does it come from.
Pay attention to the original source of information including with the minor details such as the author, date of publication and the URL of the website.
A link’s URL can also be a signal of credibility. A professional or well-recognized domain name can be trusted more often than a string of numbers and letters.
When looking at the content of the information or article, try to identify any pieces of information that seem too good to be true, are inconsistent with others that you have read or seen, or seem overblown, dramatic, or lacking specific evidence.
So, when looking for information online, it is always advisable to refer to sources published by credible sources for accessing quality information.
This is especially true when you are looking for science-based or health-based information.
For example, sites such as CDC, Mayo Clinic, and WebMD are all good sources for health information and they are accessible to the general public.
However, to prevent being misinformation, perhaps the best way to do it to analyse your own bias towards certain issue.
Sometimes facts do not help persuasion as individuals may rely on their personal belief system to interpret evidence. Misinformation is one of the biggest threats in the online world and it is important to protect yourself and those in your circle by not sharing anything unless you are completely sure it is true.
