Kind: captions
Language: en
so one of my favorite videos on the
internet goes like this
there's a group of guys who are hardcore
flat earthers
they don't believe the earth is round so
they design an experiment to prove the
earth is flat
it's pretty simple they want to shine a
powerful light through boards
from far away enough that if the world
was truly round the curvature of the
earth would make it impossible to see a
light held at equal height
because if the earth is flat they're
going to see a light shining through
both holes in the boards because there's
no curvature of the earth
the experiment however proved the
opposite that the earth is round
we don't see you enrique lift up your
light way above your head
despite all of the evidence they refused
to believe the facts
and instead continue to spread
misinformation
sharing misinformation is a byproduct of
human connection
our need to communicate can be more
important than making sure that all the
facts are in place
last episode we talked about why
misinformation is believed but let's
talk about why it's spread and how
for that i have an example and it's all
about llamas
let's say i wake up in the morning and i
find egg on my car
it got all over my windshield it got all
over my llama for congress bumper
sticker
that's the new candidate by the way is
the llama named
lama so i text my neighbor and he
responds
no way dude they clearly don't want
llamas running for congress
that's right they must have seen my
llama for congress bumper sticker
retaliated so i tweet out a picture of
my car with the message
we're getting egged over here llama
intimidation much
it gets 50 000 retweets in just a few
hours
within a week signs start popping up all
over the neighborhood
other llama supporters are posting this
so i'm going along my business until one
day i hear something
and i find a small nest of chickens
chirping on the awning above my car
it appears that their eggs simply rolled
down and
fell onto my car
so i tweet out once again guys it wasn't
anti-lamb
it was chickens but some people on
social media continue to share the false
claim
even some people who saw the retraction
in the correction a major news agency
even reports on all the signs of the
residents in the neighborhood
fighting back against llama intimidation
but fortunately
no other eggings occur so yes the car
had egg on it but it wasn't a political
attack it was just
a rogue egg from a chicken chicken so
why did the misinformation spread
i simply reported a fact to my neighbor
but then i jumped to conclusions and
shared misinformation online some people
then shared this misinformation because
it also confirmed
their belief of an anti-llama bias
lastly concerned neighbors posted flyers
promoting the misinformation then it all
just got out of control
even in this simple case placing all the
blame on a single group for
misinformation
is impossible but back to reality as a
society
we've wrestled with intentional
misinformation for years
historical example of you know
advertising around snake oil sales
right well it turns out that's that's a
phrase that people are aware of the
notion of being a snake oil salesman but
it actually was a real it was a thing
okay that's brian southwell and he
literally wrote this book
on misinformation and here's something
you probably didn't know
we used the term snake oil salesmen
refer to swindlers who intentionally
mislead others but the original snake
oil salesmen were chinese immigrants in
the 1800s
and one product they brought with them
to the states was yeah a snake oil that
was
rich in omega-3 fatty acids which are
found in many fish
and can contribute to cardiovascular
health in the late 1800s however a
traveling merchant named clark stanley
began selling a product that he called
snake oil but it didn't actually contain
snakes instead it had mineral oil it was
unlikely to have
any positive health effects why is
misinformation something that it seems
we just can't rid ourselves
of when we're trying to think about
explaining
the diffusion of misinformation it's
important to realize
all the reasons why people talk to one
another all the reasons why people
engage with one another
and sometimes those reasons aren't
necessarily focused just on the factual
truth
sometimes people are connecting with one
another because of reasons of
identity or reasons of community dr
southwell and others in the field liken
information to a kind of
currency that gets traded in normal
conversation
but what should we do when we see
someone trading in counterfeit currency
or misinformation we've seen lots of
evidence of people
willingly sharing know misinformation
online um you know in recent months and
it's something that's worried a lot of
people
uh the first step we can take is
actually one of empathy
and to realize that we're all in this
together we all
under certain circumstances are
vulnerable to misinformation
we've all made mistakes and what we've
shared so
be more empathetic to those around us
and then also slow down
and take the time to kind of verify the
sources that you're looking at
which which isn't necessarily bad advice
for life in general right so
slow down not necessarily spend you know
a week investigating
uh you know a piece of information or
misinformation you found online but at
least taking five minutes
at least taking a moment to verify
triangulate to try to get other sources
of information so that's the deal
science misinformation has been spread
for thousands of years
and we are particularly vulnerable to
sharing it because of the way that we
communicate
next time the real fun begins we'll
examine click bait
and misinformation in the news and by
the way
the earth is round