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Doing your own research is a good way to end up being wrong
The Washington Post ^ | January 17, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. EST | Philip Bump

Posted on 01/18/2024 4:44:01 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

The internet has been a huge boon for the accessibility of information. There are very few barriers to consuming classic literature or detailed scientific analyses or catalogues of news reports. There is also an exorbitant amount of garbage information, of course, and an entire universe of people who say stuff that they think will get people to click links that will earn themselves money.

Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter. While confidence in American institutions has been in decline for some time, it’s not hard to imagine how the economic incentives of the internet contribute. There is an outsize appetite for derogatory, counterintuitive or anti-institutional assessments of the world around us. This is in part because alleged scandals are interesting and in part because Americans like to view themselves as independent analysts of the world around us.

The result is that there is both a supply and a demand for nonsense or appealingly framed errors. Americans who have little trust in the system can easily find something to reinforce their skepticism. They often do.

Sign up for How To Read This Chart, a weekly data newsletter from Philip Bump

This month, Nieman Lab’s Josh Benton reported on research released last year that showed how people “doing their own research” on the internet often led them to gain more confidence in untrue information. The paper, titled “Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity,” was written by researchers from the University of Central Florida, New York University and Stanford. Their conclusions were straightforward.

“Although conventional wisdom suggests that searching online when evaluating misinformation would reduce belief in it, there is little empirical evidence to evaluate this claim,” the authors wrote. Instead, they continued: “We present consistent evidence that online search to evaluate the...”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 1984; beagoodnazi; berlinpost; coercedconsensus; conformconform; failedenglishmajor; fakenews; goosesteppingpundit; junkscience; ministryoftruth; moscowpost; philipbump; trustderfuhrer; trustjunkscience; trusttheexperts; washingtoncompost; whitewashinghamas; whitewashinghamaspos
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

You must trust only the approved narrative and the most highly paid,
er, respected, fact checkers, grant recipients, study providers,
enemedia moguls, current administration handlers... etc.


41 posted on 01/18/2024 5:46:28 PM PST by EasySt (Say not this is the truth, but so it seems to me to be, as I see this thing I think I see. #MAGA-A)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Bat soup, wear your mask, Ukraine isn’t nazi, wear your mask, global warming, safest election ever, 6 feet of separation, eat eggs, don’t eat eggs, Trump is crooked, eat mostly carbs, Biden is honest, get your shot, get 8 boosters, etc etc etc...

Sure, listen to authorities, experts and the mainstream news.


42 posted on 01/18/2024 5:48:48 PM PST by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

No surprise this comes from the Washington Compost. Doing research doesn’t mean only seeking information from one source. It means seeking out multiple sources, extracting important facts, analyzing them, forming your own opinions, presenting those opinions, and defending those opinions based on the source material you used to come to that decision. Research also requires that you provide a specific list of the sources you accessed and used to come to your end result.


43 posted on 01/18/2024 5:49:35 PM PST by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I read it somewhere. I wrote it down, then I read it.


44 posted on 01/18/2024 5:54:35 PM PST by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
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To: DoughtyOne
Our findings highlight the need for media literacy efforts combatting the effects of misinformation to ground their recommendations in empirically tested interventions, as well as search engines to invest in solutions to the challenges identified here. For example, recent developments in the space—such as the expansion of teaching lateral reading strategies and Google’s warning when no credible information is available for given search queries44—are interesting steps in this direction and deserve further testing.

We are gonna trust Academics and Google? ALL HAIL…

Authority bias is the tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion. An individual is more influenced by the opinion of this authority figure, believing their views to be more credible, and hence place greater emphasis on the authority figure's viewpoint and are more likely to obey them. This concept is considered one of the social cognitive biases or collective cognitive biases.

45 posted on 01/18/2024 5:59:09 PM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

For some reason “truth” is harder than ever to find.


46 posted on 01/18/2024 6:05:13 PM PST by cornfedcowboy ( )
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To: DoughtyOne

47 posted on 01/18/2024 6:10:40 PM PST by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas (Re-imagine the media!)
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To: Texas Fossil

The Washington Post is an apt name because George Washington was a white man that used charismatic cult-like mind control to keep his slaves from wandering off the plantation. George even tried to sign them up to a subscription plan and charge them for his white privilege, but that failed for some reason.


48 posted on 01/18/2024 6:30:09 PM PST by Reeses
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Doing your own research is a good way to end up being wrong,

"Trusting the 'experts'" is a good way to end up dead.

49 posted on 01/18/2024 6:39:13 PM PST by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

What else would a lying rag shilling for a billionaire and his government cronies say to try to get truth-seekers off their scent?


50 posted on 01/18/2024 6:40:23 PM PST by vrwconspiracist (The Tax Man cometh)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Reading the compost, the slimes or watching any of the communist TV broadcasters is a guaranteed way to be misinformed.


51 posted on 01/18/2024 6:56:23 PM PST by Newtoidaho (All I ask of living is to have no chains on me.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Iowa really has them frightened. Since Monday night it’s been a constant outrush of why not to trust yourself, why Trump is popular despite (stream of lies), expert source says Trump will (insert something Brandon/Obama are doing right now), etc etc. ad nauseam.

WEF gave the executive order that ‘misinformation’ is enemy #1 and the minions scramble to duckspeak goodthought doubleplushasty.


52 posted on 01/18/2024 7:19:17 PM PST by No.6
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To: ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas

So true...


53 posted on 01/18/2024 7:44:41 PM PST by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the USofA & to the Constitutional REPUBLIC for which it stands.)
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To: DoodleBob

no

smile


54 posted on 01/18/2024 7:46:33 PM PST by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the USofA & to the Constitutional REPUBLIC for which it stands.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

55 posted on 01/18/2024 8:32:25 PM PST by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The WaPo should know they’ve been doing it for years. 😏


56 posted on 01/18/2024 8:39:50 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Libloather

Democracy dies with Democrats.


57 posted on 01/18/2024 10:23:13 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: lightman

Dan Bongino’s Rule #1 is “Don’t get dead.”


58 posted on 01/18/2024 10:28:52 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: lightman

Bump


59 posted on 01/19/2024 2:56:59 AM PST by Texas Fossil (Texas is not about where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind and Attitude.)
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To: Libloather
The Washington Post

Democracy DiesDied in Darkness because of the Washington Post

60 posted on 01/19/2024 3:08:11 AM PST by Texas Fossil (Texas is not about where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind and Attitude.)
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