Every month, our expert analyzes a situation from everyday life that raises questions for us. Psychologist Sergei Stepanov reflects on the fake news that we readily accept as the truth.
This winter, a storm of feelings was aroused by the news: a group of Orthodox activists proposed to remove astronomy from the school curriculum so as not to embarrass young minds. Well-known publicists hurried to respond with an angry rebuff, and it soon became clear that this news is from the category of provocations that are thrown into the information space every now and then. Here are some more examples of a genre in which FogNews has been particularly successful: Governor Tkachev resigned after the Krymsk flood; conductor Gergiev broke his baton in support of Pussy Riot; TV presenter Pozner leaves Russia; women who have not given birth to a child before the age of 23 will go to serve in the army … Why is it so difficult for us to recognize a lie?
Perception trap. In the XNUMXst century, we sometimes perceive and process more information in a week than our medieval ancestor did in his entire life. At the same time, the psychophysiological capabilities of a person are limited, so it has always been common for a person to organize information, giving priority to threat warnings. However, today this filter has turned out to be a trap for us: we are extremely willing to believe what confirms our fears.
I want and see. Our perception is selective: we do not see reality, but only what we are internally ready to accept. We ignore obvious phenomena and facts if they do not fit into our picture of the world, if they contradict the established system of values and goals. But literally from scratch we “see” something that confirms this system. Not surprisingly, the deception, veiled in a couple of reliable details, seems very plausible to us. Incorporating it into our picture of the world, we sometimes make several “cognitive mistakes” at once: we ignore the available statistical data in favor of particular cases, we take reference to authority as an argument. Another reason for gullibility is our need to achieve clarity on an important issue at any cost, even in spite of apparent contradictions.
The art of doubt. Having become accustomed to the pluralism of opinions, we have almost lost our criticality in our assessments. Perhaps only on April 1 we are on the alert. On other days it would be worth cultivating a healthy skepticism in ourselves and asking more often: who will benefit if we believe this message, whose interests does it serve? Usually fake news does not stand the test of objectivity – self-interest or political partisanship looms too clearly behind them.
Sergey Stepanov, psychologist, author of books, including The Art of Getting Your Own Way, New Psychological Tips for Every Day (Eksmo, 2007, 2009).
About it
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