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FiveThirtyEight is covering the efficacy of fact-checking and other methods to combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation. Fact-checking, after the fact, is better than nothing, it turns out. There are some common factors in the times when it has been done successfully:
Political scientists Ethan Porter and Thomas J. Wood conducted an exhaustive battery of surveys on fact-checking, across more than 10,000 participants and 13 studies that covered a range of political, economic and scientific topics. They found that 60 percent of respondents gave accurate answers when presented with a correction, while just 32 percent of respondents who were not given a correction expressed accurate beliefs. That’s pretty solid proof that fact-checking can work.
But Porter and Wood have found, alongside many other fact-checking researchers, some methods of fact-checking are more effective than others. Broadly speaking, the most effective fact checks have this in common:
- They are from highly credible sources (with extra credit for those that are also surprising, like Republicans contradicting other Republicans or Democrats contradicting other Democrats).
- They offer a new frame for thinking about the issue (that is, they don’t simply dismiss a claim as “wrong” or “unsubstantiated”).
- They don’t directly challenge one’s worldview and identity.
- They happen early, before a false narrative gains traction.
It is as much about psychology as actually rebutting the disinformation because factors like partisanship and worldview have strong effects, and it is hard to reach people inside their social control media echo chambers from an accurate source they will accept.
[Though often incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain, one is reminded of the adage: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”. --Ed.]
Previously:
(2020) Nearly Half of Twitter Accounts Pushing to Reopen America May be Bots
(2019) Russians Engaging in Ongoing 'Information Warfare,' FBI Director Says
(2019) How Fake News Spreads Like a Real Virus
(2019) More and More Countries are Mounting Disinformation Campaigns Online
(2019) At Defcon, Teaching Disinformation Campaigns Is Child's Play
(2018) Why You Stink at Fact-Checking
(2017) Americans Are “Under Siege” From Disinformation
(2015) Education Plus Ideology Exaggerates Rejection of Reality
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday June 05 2020, @01:05PM
Absolutely, source: Dad used to live in Louisiana.
I used to live in Miami, driving while poor got me "profiled" and pulled at least three times there - we're talking about: detained for 30+ minutes with no reason or reasonable explanation, followed up with over-the top intimidation and baseless charges by the cop. Come to think of it, every time a cop has pulled bald-lies out of their ass to lay some bullshit citation or intimidation on me they were driving solo.
I suppose the race card is what we're playing this round, but don't fool yourself - blacks make up 14% of the US population, the poorest 20% (and growing as we speak) are just as disenfranchised and harassed. Most of what you are seeing as "Black and White" today will resurface as "Poor and Rich" if we ever manage to get rid of the racial discrimination. Again: my model is Miami - a city where race isn't as much of a thing (sure, it's a thing, but not like backwoods Louisiana), but scads of money vs little money most definitely is. There, racial profiling is mostly just another way to estimate wealth from a distance.
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