Truth in Information

How do we know when information is true?

We are far more trusting of information than we should be. We have to be trusting, of course. There's no time to verify every bit of information we come across in life.

If you read something on the Internet, do you believe it?

You're hopping around online, and come across a hard to believe statement — something like:

Polar bears eat as many as 26 delicious baby seals per day .

Crazy, right? ¹

Your instincts would probably kick in and tell you that something isn't quite right with that statement. We all have a bullshit detector built in, to some degree.

Now let's change that statement a bit. What if it read:

Polar bears eat as many as 4 delicious baby seals per day .

Now that seems far more believable. In fact, you wouldn't question this statement at all. You would accept it as fact and move on with the article.

Why do you accept this statement as fact?

Two reasons.

1. It's not outlandish and obviously questionable.

2. It takes far too much effort to verify the information.

Books

Let's change things up a bit. You're reading a book. The polar bear statement appears — the first one. The one about 26 delicious baby seals. Do you believe it this time?

I'd bet that you probably would. Books, for some reason, are inherently more trustworthy than words on the Internet. If someone printed it in a book, it must be true, right?

Oy.

Here's the thing. Most information we come across is difficult to verify. More specifically, it's far too time-consuming to verify. For me to unquestionably verify the polar bear statement, I would have to study polar bears. I'd likely have to dedicate years of my life and countless dollars to this effort. It's much easier to simply accept the information and move on.

What's the big deal?

So you mistakenly think polar bears eat much more than they do — who cares? In this example, you're right. This misinformation is hardly likely to cause you any harm.

But what if you based your opinions of other things on false information? What if you start a study with false information and end up with a result that shocks the world? An incorrect result, mind you, because the basis of the study was false.

We form opinions and make decisions every day based on information that we can't or didn't verify. Information that we just trust to be accurate. A tad scary, isn't it?