When consuming the news, people bring their biases with them. However, University of Michigan professor Brendan Nyhan and other scholars have found that facts can — and do — change people’s minds when presented under certain conditions. We discuss his research on how to create a more widely-shared understanding of […] Read more »
About three-quarters of Americans favor steps to restrict altered videos and images
The proliferation of altered videos – some of which are known as “deepfakes” – has sparked concern in recent years, particularly as a growing share of Americans now get news from online video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Overall, the U.S. public sees altered videos and images as a major problem […] Read more »
Deepfakes Are Coming. We Can No Longer Believe What We See.
… We ordinarily tend to think that perception — the evidence of your eyes and ears — provides pretty strong justification. If you see something with your own eyes, you should probably believe it. By comparison, the claims that other people make — which philosophers call “testimony” — provide some […] Read more »
‘Screen Time’ Is Over
… Consider what a person can do in just the time it takes to wait for a bus: text, watch a comedy skit, play a video game, buy concert tickets, take five selfies, each with a different set of cartoon ears. Learning how that behavior shapes an individual’s life experience […] Read more »
In the war against misinformation, fact-checking works. Big Tech needs to do more of it
Amid a continued public outcry over the influence of fake news and misinformation, tech companies are scrambling to generate effective solutions. … Our new research shows that fact-checking prevents misinformation from shaping our thoughts — even our automatic and uncontrollable perceptions. When fact-checking calls out what isn’t credible, much of […] Read more »
The Most Racist People Are Also the Most Likely to Underestimate Their Racism
In 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump famously proclaimed: “I am the least racist person you have ever met.” That statement could, of course, be an outright falsehood. But it could also be an example of a prideful man who is motivated to lie to himself. New research points to a […] Read more »