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