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posted by janrinok on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the it-caught-me-too dept.

Here's a quick quiz for you:

In the biblical story, what was Jonah swallowed by?
How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the Ark?

Did you answer "whale" to the first question and "two" to the second? Most people do ... even though they're well aware that it was Noah, not Moses who built the ark in the biblical story.

Psychologists like me call this phenomenon the Moses Illusion. It's just one example of how people are very bad at picking up on factual errors in the world around them. Even when people know the correct information, they often fail to notice errors and will even go on to use that incorrect information in other situations.

Research from cognitive psychology shows that people are naturally poor fact-checkers and it is very difficult for us to compare things we read or hear to what we already know about a topic. In what's been called an era of "fake news," this reality has important implications for how people consume journalism, social media and other public information.

The Moses Illusion has been studied repeatedly since the 1980s. It occurs with a variety of questions and the key finding is that – even though people know the correct information – they don't notice the error and proceed to answer the question.

[...] Detecting and correcting false information is difficult work and requires fighting against the ways our brains like to process information. Critical thinking alone won't save us. Our psychological quirks put us at risk of falling for misinformation, disinformation and propaganda. Professional fact-checkers provide an essential service in hunting out incorrect information in the public view. As such, they are one of our best hopes for zeroing in on errors and correcting them, before the rest of us read or hear the false information and incorporate it into what we know of the world.

https://theconversation.com/why-you-stink-at-fact-checking-93997

[Related]:
[PDF] Moses illusion: Implication for human cognition

Moses strikes again: Focalization effect on a semantic illusion

Knowledge neglect

Although the title seems click-baity, this is an interesting article. As most of you are techies, you must have faced a few problems with regard to fact-checking. What do you think about this phenomenon ?


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:22AM (14 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:22AM (#660723) Journal

    Quite a number of idiosyncrasies coming from your direction, your majesty.

    So what? An opinion is by definition very close to an idiosyncrasy [oxforddictionaries.com]:

    a mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual.

    Is there something you think I should know?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:38AM (13 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:38AM (#660725)

    Is there something you think I should know?

    Yessir, of course there is: don't be surprised if many of us won't swallow your BS, much less keep it in mind.
    The frequent use of "Let us..." is a patronizing attempt to rally around your position; it may sound as "academic speak" but what usually follows is subprime intellectual garbage.

    However, we'll let you indulge in your feeling of "I'm behaving like a leader for us" because we love you as our soylentil brother.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @05:10AM (12 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @05:10AM (#660730) Journal

      The frequent use of "Let us..." is a patronizing attempt to rally around your position; it may sound as "academic speak" but what usually follows is subprime intellectual garbage.

      You want to be treated like a grown up? Act like one. I'm not going to take you seriously when you whine like a five year old. I don't have to give you a lollypop. I won't.

      Let us recall the previous AC coy remark which added nothing to the discussion.

      Quite a number of idiosyncrasies coming from your direction, your majesty. Of course we'll let you "keep in mind", or "remember", or "note", you are free to do as you please. If the mothership allows you to, who are we to object?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @05:28AM (9 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @05:28AM (#660733)

        You want to be treated like a grown up? Act like one.

        I'm acting like one, pointing out how you are seen from outside yourself.
        If you can do something about it, you'll do it, if you can't you won't.

        Let us recall the previous AC coy remark ....

        Which has nothing to do with the observation I shared with you, thus the act of recalling is not necessary in this case.

        Your chosen wording signals that you won't do anything to adjust yourself. Little surprise there, conservatives try to can their mind and preserve it, like a pickle or a jam; they'll disregard how backward they end due to the world moving ahead and letting them behind.

        In the end do as you like, your "majesty plural" user; just keep in your minds or do an act of collective recalling that, as much as we love you, there's nobody to follow you.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @06:36AM (8 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @06:36AM (#660747) Journal

          I'm acting like one, pointing out how you are seen from outside yourself.

          No, you aren't. You're playing games. And I return that, tit for tat.

          Which has nothing to do with the observation I shared with you, thus the act of recalling is not necessary in this case.

          Let us note that I disagree.

          Your chosen wording signals that you won't do anything to adjust yourself. Little surprise there, conservatives try to can their mind and preserve it, like a pickle or a jam; they'll disregard how backward they end due to the world moving ahead and letting them behind.

          So what? I'm not the problem here. And I'm not changing my ways because a) I don't care about your opinion, and b) I don't respect your opinion.

          In the end do as you like, your "majesty plural" user; just keep in your minds or do an act of collective recalling that, as much as we love you, there's nobody to follow you.

          I gather you don't have anything better to do with your time, but if you ever should change, this pointless activity would be a great thing to completely excise from your life. Perhaps you should preemptively do it so that you actually will have a life at some point?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @07:47AM (7 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @07:47AM (#660765)

            So what? I'm not the problem here.

            There's no problem anywhere. Just a view from outside you, view which was offered free of any obligation.
            No need to throw a tantrum over it (ref "I'm not going to take you seriously... I don't have to give you a lollypop. I won't.")

            And I'm not changing my ways because a) I don't care about your opinion, and b) I don't respect your opinion.

            Oh, if you only could feel yourself how much this hurts me! It's like having a nanotube of carbon in my ass, trying to impede on me giving whatever the mentioned orifice usually gives.

            I gather you don't have anything better to do with your time, but if you ever should change, this pointless activity would be a great thing to completely excise from your life.

            Suggestion noted; even if I admit that it's not very likely I'll be in a crisis if spare time in the next couple of days. I can thus indulge in staying on this thread a little more.
            Back to you, khallow. We, the readers, have an enquiring mind, please let us note next a revelation on how useful an expenditure of your time this thread is.

            • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday March 31 2018, @09:03AM (2 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday March 31 2018, @09:03AM (#660781) Journal

              khallow, just admit it, you have lost again. You have equated informed opinion to bizarre right-wing ideological positions such as your own. So by your own petard, you are hoist. Your opinion is your opinion, only your opinion, supported by no facts or evidence, and you expect us to accept that as any thing more than the more refined and ethereal kind of bullshit?

              The better part of Valor, my dear and Fluffy khallow, is to admit when you are fairly bested. To continue on like this bespeaks bad faith, and a lack of rational awareness. Please, Soylentils deserve better from you.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:55PM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:55PM (#660838)

                Where is the AC complaining about pejorative turns of speech and the much less polished attempts at eloquence now?

                • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:25PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:25PM (#660859)

                  Here I am
                  Rock you like a hurricane (Are you ready, baby?)

            • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:10PM (2 children)

              by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:10PM (#660820) Journal

              We, the readers, have an enquiring mind,

              LOL, talk about that Royal wee wee!! And, how many readers have to share the same mind?

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @05:18PM

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @05:18PM (#660888) Journal

                And, how many readers have to share the same mind?

                LOL. That sucker must be completely worn out by now, if this is all they have to complain about.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @08:03PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @08:03PM (#660933)

                It doesn't include you, Runaway! No matter, never mind. And take your hands off the Royal wee-wee, you perv!!

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:04PM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:04PM (#660869) Journal

              There's no problem anywhere. Just a view from outside you, view which was offered free of any obligation.

              A view, which let us note, could be greatly improved by its beholder growing up. Here's the petty game and double standard that's being played. aristarchus can shit wherever he likes, such as in reply to this very article(!), and you won't say a thing. I use the "royal we" and the drama is on. I don't take serious the "views outside me" that ignore far worse than my supposed pretentiousness.

              This isn't a helpful point of view. It's the whining of a small child.

              The double standard is easily explained. I disagreed with some belief of your either in this thread or way back when, and you don't have a rational response. Rather than educate yourself on the matter and think about it a little, things that would allow you to come up with reasoned, thoughtful posts that actually challenge my viewpoints, you instead came up with a grammatical nit to pick, because that was the easy thing to do. And even then, you (or perhaps some other AC? You all look alike to me) played further games by starting with an insinuation rather than outright stating your opinion on the matter.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:04PM (1 child)

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:04PM (#660819) Journal

        I don't have to give you a lollypop. I won't.

        Well, now we know who succeeded Dr. Seus' Grinch.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:05PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:05PM (#660870) Journal
          It's all those mean ACs who make my heart three sizes too small.