Protecting Yourself From Disinformation

With a growing divide in the political discourse of the United States it is of the utmost importance that we examine disinformation, both on the societal and personal level. The debate over what to do about false information will rage on within media companies and government agencies. However, there are steps you can take to guard yourself from falling down a pit of falsehoods.

Facts and Feelings

Ben Shapiro once said, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” This soon became a popular slogan among like-minded conservatives, particularly in online spaces. Inevitably the quote was used against Shapiro and other conservatives when they too would use their personal feelings to guard themselves from facts.

The reality is both are necessary to encourage the growth of society. Facts alone are cold and aimless, mere numbers among statistics floating in a sea of information without initiative. Feelings by themselves are raw and biased, determined to reach a goal, without care for what is actually true.

Facts should be used to inform our feelings. These facts give us a base with which to examine our reality, while feelings give us the drive and purpose to critique and improve this existence. Both are vital. However, the temptation can be strong to cling on to our ideas and seek “facts” that agree with our preconceived view of current affairs. This can lead us down roads of disinformation to fear and isolation.

If we are to break this chain of events we must learn to recognize when we are going down this road ourselves so we may correct our course. In short, we should take the time to apply a scientific method to the information we gather. Be open to new data and ideas, but approach it with a skeptic mindset requiring solid evidence.

The Bubbles in Which We Live

Everyone has a bubble of information they reside in. This bubble is created first by the family in which we are raised, followed by the friends we make. Eventually we latch onto pundits and politicians that speak to us and generally support our view of reality. The incredible growth of social media has given us new tools, allowing us to interact with countless individuals who support or deny our views.

These inputs can all work like feedback loops, pulling us deeper into a sense of righteous superiority. When new information is presented which challenges our notion of reality, it is pushed aside. Eventually overwhelming evidence may prove us wrong so we allow cognitive dissonance to take over and trap us inside.

Your bubble is not infallible. Everyone you know has been wrong at one point or another, I have been wrong. The shame is not being incorrect, the shame is holding onto positions because you find changing them and admitting fault is too scary of a proposition to consider. It is a cowardly approach to life that can undo or hinder the work of those with the strength to improve our conditions.

Sources, Sources, Sources

An obvious step to determine the trustworthiness of your information is to examine the source. A fringe media outlet that exists solely to push specific narratives is dubious at best. This is not to say that a well established organization which claims neutrality is always correct either, highlighting why it is critically important to examine claims and studies made by whatever you are reading or watching.

It is also important to determine where support and funding for this information comes from. If an organization or study is sponsored by a corporation that would heavily benefit from its promotion then the results are highly suspect. A state sponsored group should be similarly scrutinized. Your information could end up being just fine, but you can’t know without checking.

Everyone has an agenda, so it’s important to know what that is and how it could effect their information. A story can be fact checked, and a study compared to other similar works. If your information contradicts a more simple and commonly excepted explanation then you should closely examine its contents with care.

Words Alone Mean Nothing

Similarly the words of a pundit or politician you look up to are not free from criticism. It’s important to keep in mind who they are. Their history and connections can heavily influence the message they exalt. Perhaps most obviously, donors can be a major influence on the public positions of a pundit or politician.

Ask yourself if the policies they espouse will actually be beneficial to you and society as a whole. Do not merely take their word at it, dig into the specifics when you can and make comparisons with different sources. In the process of this you can also determine if what they are saying is actually factual or not.

It is important to remember that you do not have to constantly have your nose in studies to verify the information you are pulling in. Simply put in a little research when you have time, admit ignorance when it exists, and seek to rid yourself of said ignorance when possible. There is also no shame in weighing the opinions of experts who have far more experience and time devoted to specific fields. No one can be an expert in everything, but you can use verified expert opinion to help prevent yourself from falling for false claims.

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

Even the most mundane of new information we are presented with must be scrutinized and contextualized as we form our worldview. This is even more important with incredible or shocking claims. Check the evidence not only with your own judgement, but also with the input of experts within the appropriate field.

This is not to say data is unchanging. Over time experts have come to accept new theories and adopt new policies thanks to improved methods of study. The key is to insure adherence to the scientific method through every step of the way. Claims from an individual without backing evidence are empty. A single study alone can be an outlier, a handful could have shared statistical faults, but a trend in an overarching multitude of work can generally be trusted.

All of us will be fooled by bad information at some point. Our goal should be to make sure we aren’t so entrenched in our thinking that we wall ourselves off from counter information. You may feel compelled to adopt a cutting edge batch of studies that are against the narrative we are familiar with, there is nothing inherently wrong with this unless you refuse to let go when subsequent evidence proves it false.

We are imperfect beings using imperfect data, but if we use the scientific method in our own lives we can help mitigate our biases. Be observant, have a healthy dose of skepticism, and take note of the assumptions at play, both in yourself and your sources. It is expected that we will use our feelings to prescribe different solutions to the same problems, but to be productive we must base ourselves in the same reality as described by solid and verified facts.