Political misinformation really stinks. I’d word it more eloquently if I could, but it really, really, stinks.
Perhaps you’ve fact-checked a couple of the more recent political debates to discover that politicians flat out lie (if you want more on that, check out this blog post). Yes lying is bad, and you might think it yields a simple solution- correct the misinformation, right? Wrong.
An article by the Washington Post highlighted how political information carries way more power than you might think. Their research suggests that, “correcting misinformation serves to increase the power of bad information.” It makes sense when you think about it- when you call out the bad information and try to correct it, all you’re doing is giving more attention to that incorrect information. The studies within the article show that, “the damaging charge…continued to have an effect even after it was debunked among precisely those people predisposed to buy the bad information in the first place.” Basically, the corrector's attempt to redeem the information only backfires on them, and sometimes even strengthens a person’s belief in the wrong information.
So now what? If correcting wrong information only fuels the power of the misinformation, how are we supposed to know what the truth is? The best answer I have for you would be to be aware that everything you see on the internet is not always true (shocking, I know). Be aware that people can be really good at lying, and always be sure to fact-check.
Perhaps you’ve fact-checked a couple of the more recent political debates to discover that politicians flat out lie (if you want more on that, check out this blog post). Yes lying is bad, and you might think it yields a simple solution- correct the misinformation, right? Wrong.
An article by the Washington Post highlighted how political information carries way more power than you might think. Their research suggests that, “correcting misinformation serves to increase the power of bad information.” It makes sense when you think about it- when you call out the bad information and try to correct it, all you’re doing is giving more attention to that incorrect information. The studies within the article show that, “the damaging charge…continued to have an effect even after it was debunked among precisely those people predisposed to buy the bad information in the first place.” Basically, the corrector's attempt to redeem the information only backfires on them, and sometimes even strengthens a person’s belief in the wrong information.
So now what? If correcting wrong information only fuels the power of the misinformation, how are we supposed to know what the truth is? The best answer I have for you would be to be aware that everything you see on the internet is not always true (shocking, I know). Be aware that people can be really good at lying, and always be sure to fact-check.