The human brain did not evolve to handle a massive amount of misinformation.
It evolved to more or less believe what it’s told, because the community/tribe is focused on the survival of all together.
Social tools let it know who was the most trustworthy.
But overall if someone said
“that’s poisonous” or
“danger that way,” they meant it!
Not to oversimplify, but I really get why we’re struggling as a species with misinformation.
EVERYONE NEEDS ACCOMMODATIONS TO HANDLE MODERN LIFE
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Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
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mattia
in reply to Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. • • •@BoydStephenSmithJr even so, there’s (some, needs replicating iirc) evidence that the human brain immediately accepts/believes everything it hears, and THEN begins a process of critical thinking.
So for people who are busy, overwhelmed, distracted, stressed… that critical thinking mechanism may not have time or energy to function well.
It’s easy for me as someone with enormous capacity for data & internal processing to forget it’s really not easy!
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.
in reply to mattia • • •I didn't mean to claim it was easy, or to really put any blame on someone that fails to think critically. It is an acquired skill, and yes, there is evidence that it runs counter to our instinct / reflexive behaviors.
I just wanted to emphasize that (a) you can't depend on Google, AI, your Bubble, or _anything_ external to do it for you, and (b) we *should* try to skill people up on it as a public good like society did at some points in the past.
It's especially important when you are spreading information to try to think critically about it first, because some of your audience/followers/community might not be in the best condition to engage their own critical thinking skills.
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RealGravitas -Citizen Saboteur
in reply to Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. • • •@BoydStephenSmithJr Admittedly, not a given these days, but my daughter, who teaches 7th grade history, says this: “I don’t care ultimately if you know if Attila the Hun invaded Europe in 952 AD, as long as you’re able to exercise critical thinking skills.” That’s her number one goal.
I hope there’s thousands more like her.
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