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"may I ask: why the fact check?" Part 2

Posted by Krav Maga (A) on May 30, 2020 at 16:15:46

In Reply to: RE: "that famous photo of the Tiananmen Square protester confronting a tank? they ran him over" posted by rivervalley817 on May 30, 2020 at 14:24:18:

Additionally, you may find this article of interest.

"What is fact checking and why is it important?"
Posted on 16 November 2018 by FactCheckNI (link below)

A few quotes from the article:

"Cognitive biases

The spread of misinformation is inherently human. (On the flipside of an evolutionary advantage, some cognitive biases might be desirable functional features.) Lewandowsky et al. (2012) provides some reasons for the acquisition and persistence of misinformation:

everyday conversational conduct requires you to accept rather than reject information in a conversation
your brain is lazy: you tend to believe something true when it is less demanding for your brain; you assess information based on what is coherent with what you already know
the mere repetition of a claim can make you think that it's true
you can be emotionally biased if it fits the worldview you have

Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist who won the Nobel prize in economic sciences, explains these cognitive shortcuts with a concept of "WYSIATI" (What you see is all there is). We tend not to look for what we do not see. We rather rely on the information that is directly available to us, without being fully aware of what we do not know. If we just see some elements of a story, we construct the best story we can out of those partial elements.

Don't underestimate the power of the herd

The Sokal hoax was a scholarly publishing experiment by Alan Sokal in 1996, who submitted an article to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies. Sokal wanted to test the journal's intellectual rigor and whether it would publish the article if "it sounded good and it flattered the editor's ideological preconceptions". In other words, he was testing whether the article appealed to the editor's cognitive biases (like those listed above).

On the day that the article was published, Sokal revealed that it was a hoax. A follow-up study to the Sokal affair demonstrated herd behaviour, which occurs when people follow the behaviour of others, reasoning that "this many people can't be wrong". As the herd grows, it can be individually challenging to dissent from the crowd mentality.

...


Part of the approach of fact checking is the awareness of the cognitive biases innate to each of us. While these biases help us navigate everyday life, they can cause us to overlook relevant facts, even when they are clearly presented. Added to this, "herding" can make us collectively behave in conformist ways, to the point of sanctioning the (truthful) dissenter."
"All thoughts are prey to some beast" - Bill Callahan

"I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are" - Lou Reed

"Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth." - Albert Einstein

• What is fact checking and why is it important?   (Open in New Window)

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