How to recognize disinformation and how to stop it

[Music]

if you

have a brain you have been fooled by

disinformation

most people think that only stupid

people fall for disinformation

but this is really not true

it’s a myth that disinformation loves

because if we think we’re immune we

don’t put up any defenses and we become

easy marks what i mean by disinformation

here

is the bad actors who spread lies for

power

and profit they use propaganda and

technology

to manipulate us into believing lies

distrusting one another and disdaining

the truth

it works remarkably well this is

something that fooled me

it’s a quote from the art of the deal

that was circulating widely after the

election

last year never admit defeat

it says if you don’t win claim they

cheated

why did this fool me well i saw it and i

instantly thought aha

and my own smugness kept me from looking

more carefully

so why is disinformation so

good at fooling even smart

educated clever people it’s the fast

brain slow brain thing

now you may recognize this concept from

daniel kahneman’s famous book thinking

fast and slow

in it he takes a lot of complex

neuropsychology and boils it down to

this simple idea

that the brain has two basic modes of

operation

fast and slow slow brain

is our reasoning and our analytical

ability

it’s how we solve problems it’s how we

explore new territory

it takes effort it’s like walking up to

the third floor

we usually prefer the elevator fastbrain

is the elevator

fastbrain is a very fast and efficient

manager of routine

tasks it’s autopilot it’s what drives us

home from the grocery store

it is also what scans our social media

feeds

disinformation has spent over a century

learning how to fool fast brain

this is a problem fortunately

kahneman’s work also proved that we can

teach fast brain new stuff this is how

we learned how to read and write

it’s how a physical therapist can see

your limp and know which tendon is the

problem

so learning how to recognize

disinformation does take a little effort

but it is a lot easier than learning how

to read this is

something we can do the key

is to know the tricks once you know how

the tricks work

they’re pretty easy to spot the rest

is just about building the habit look

for the trick

pause take a sec to check

it turns out that the most

commonly used most effective trick

in the disinformation playbook

is to try to amuse anger shock or

horrify us

because reason responds more slowly

than emotion in the microsecond world

of social media we are likely to

act before we really have time to think

studies show

emotional content gets far more

attention and far

more shares uh and that people are far

less likely

to consider whether it’s true or not

before they share it now that we

know that emotional responses

are what make us vulnerable to lies

we can use that to train fast brain

we’re going to train fast brain to

notice

our emotional responses and see them as

a yellow flag

that’s our signal to pause so

i really want you to try this the next

time you

are scrolling through your twitter

facebook insta whatever feed

try to notice try to notice if something

makes you feel something do you silently

chuckle

do you frown does it make you feel

uncomfortable in any way

if it does pause studies show that pause

alone

will increase our ability to detect this

information

pause and take a sec to check it will

take some time to build this habit but

if we keep working at it

pretty soon fastbrain takes this job on

by itself and it happens automatically

now while we all get fooled by

disinformation

some of us are more vulnerable than

others this is not a matter of

intelligence it’s not a matter of

education

it’s about anxiety and doubt

anxiety and doubt crave clarity

and answers and disinformation is all

too happy to provide those

disinformation actually hunts

for people who have anxieties anxiety

disorders and depression

are huge risk factors but they are not

the only ones

disinformation seeks out anxious people

looks for their anxieties and sends them

messages to

feed and exaggerate those doubts they

craft campaigns

specifically to target certain

communities

new mothers veterans

black americans spanish-speaking

americans

they’re trying to peel us away from one

another

and away from the truth one person at a

time

this is a classic example of what i call

the scary jargon trick

on one side of this dis infographic

are a bunch of sort of sciency sounding

words some of which are real

on the other side are a bunch of scary

words

abortion cancer neurotoxin

fast brain instantly recognizes these

words and you’ll feel the stress of them

in your gut before you even realize what

you’ve read

this is a more subtle version but it’s

the same essential trick

right it’s a lot of sciencey sounding

stuff

uh designed to cast doubt on whether

these new covid19 vaccines are safe

now most normal people will not have

spent weeks

looking into the details of this stuff

as i have done so let me clear for the

record a few things

number one uh fda emergency approval

means slashing bureaucracy not slashing

testing

the vaccines have been well tested

number two there are no fetal cells

there is no formaldehyde no mercury in

any

fda approved coven-19 vaccine and third

mrna cannot change your dna

it cannot make you sterile it can

now you may see a post

of this nature and dismiss it as

nonsense

but if you’re all at all concerned about

a new vaccine and a lot of people are

it’s a perfectly

reasonable thing to be concerned about

you might wonder if there’s some

grain of truth to this that’s your

signal

that’s fast braided signal to pause

if we learn to pause on doubt we can

keep that seed of doubt from taking root

teach fast brain to pause on doubt pause

on smugness

pause on anger or sympathy

pause and take that moment to check

this is a despicable piece it’s a whole

fakumentary

targeting black americans exploiting

their very real

history and experience of being treated

kind of badly by the medical

establishment

it spews a long list of lies and

conspiracy theories

it uses every propaganda trick in the

book

fake experts fake and distorted data

it just will make any claim based on

absolutely nothing other than the hope

that you might think that at least one

of them might be true

peace and complexity is intense and even

the most well-informed person

will be shaken by it this example they

shock you by saying that president biden

ordered the power companies to cut

electricity production during the big

freeze in texas

it quotes a real document but if you

read that document

you’ll see that it actually says exactly

the opposite that the biden

administration

told the power companies to produce as

much electricity as possible without

regard to any environmental concerns

disinformation knows that darn few

people

are going to read that document people

don’t check the math

if you have a brain you have been fooled

by disinformation

but if you have a brain you can fight

back when we teach

fast brain to notice and pause

we change it from being our point of

weakness to our first line of defense

here’s how number one it’s really about

practice

train fast brain to notice those

emotional responses

and pause two take

a sec to check is the piece using

intentionally shocking language is it

full of

jargon or complex documents you’re not

going to read

does it come from a credible source now

it can be really complicated to figure

out what a credible source is these days

so if you’re not sure go to

a well-recognized credible site ap

reuters politifact are all universally

respected

as objective careful fact checkers

start there three respect your own

doubts

if you’re concerned about something if

you’re confused if you’re a little bit

worried

you deserve better information than

you’re going to get from some random

facebook post

figure out who the recognized experts

are in the field and at least see what

they have to say

if it’s a medical issue talk to your

doctor your concerns deserve your

respect they deserve credible

information

four don’t forget we outnumber the bad

guys

a recent report showed that the vast

majority of online vaccine

disinformation originated with just 12

sources

there are more of us than there are of

them we just need to stick

together and be a little nice to each

other along the way we can

take power back from disinformation

all it takes is some practice