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The internet is full of crap. For every piece of reputable information you'll find countless rumors, misinformation, and downright falsehoods. Separating truth from fiction is equal parts a mental battle and diligent research. Here's how to make sure you never get duped. As long as words are hitting the page, news and facts are filtered through someone. Sometimes this is a ludicrous rumor that somehow morphs into a fact, or even just a small tip that doesn't work at all. Filtering out the junk from the facts is hard, but it's not impossible. Why You Shouldn't Trust Your Brain to Spot Truth Before we start filtering through all the junk, we need to quickly talk about how and why misinformation travels quickly. A number of reasons for this exist, but two are more prevalent than others. First off, we have belief perseverance, which Scientific America describes like so: Essentially, once an idea becomes a "fact" in our head, we have a hard time believing that the opposite is true when it's disproven. This is how myths and rumors gain steam. Belief perserverance also plays well with cognitive bias: flaws in judgement where we make statistical or attribution errors based on patterns. These biases include confirmation bias, where we tend to ignore information we don't agree with, and the bandwagon effect, where we tend to go along with what other members of a group are doing. Essentially, both make spotting misinformation difficult because we believe just about anything if we want it to be true. The only fix is to acknowledge that you do this. Once you do, it's time to start digging for truly reliable information. Photo by Alex Gaylon. How to Figure Out If Misinformation Is True Misinformation is everywhere, and although it's tough to find the truth, it's not impossible. Everything ranging from falsified classic quotes to fake experts permeate within our culture. Prime Your Brain with a Simple Question: "How Do You Know What You Know?" As we mentioned above, our brains aren't as skeptical of information as they should be. Sometimes you have to force it a little to find the real facts. Author Scott Berkun suggests you start this by asking yourself a question: Obviously you don't always have direct access to someone making a claim, but asking yourself that question ("How do they know what they know?") will bring out the skepticism that leads you through the rest of the process. Follow the Source List and Find the Context for Claims http://lifehacker.com/5950871/how-to-spot-truth-in-the-sea-of-lies-rumors-and-myths-on-the-internet My take is just that....HOW DO THEY KNOW WHAT THEY KNOW???? Ask yourself this each time you read something. Listen to your heart when you read something.
