Fake News & Misinformation: How to Spot and Verify

Fake news is designed to trip the switches that control your brain's instinctual “fight-or-flight” responses. If you read a headline or article that is clearly trying to elicit a strong reaction from you, especially if it’s slanted heavily towards one side of a debate, it’s probably fake. For example:

• Fake: Social media is destroying truth: MIT scientists find evidence of humans and robots sharing so many lies that you can’t believe anything you read on Twitter! Lizard-people are now the only safe source of news.
• Real: “On Twitter, fake news spreads faster than truth, an MIT study says.” – Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz

Your brain is your first line of defense, so if you can get some practice identifying fake news, you’ll be better able to identify it on your own. The best way to learn is to do, so use these games to practice your fake news identification skills.  

Fake news is designed to trip the switches that control your brain's instinctual “fight-or-flight” responses. If you read a headline or article that is clearly trying to elicit a strong reaction from you, especially if it’s slanted heavily towards one side of a debate, it’s probably fake. For example:

• Fake: Social media is destroying truth: MIT scientists find evidence of humans and robots sharing so many lies that you can’t believe anything you read on Twitter! Lizard-people are now the only safe source of news.
• Real: “On Twitter, fake news spreads faster than truth, an MIT study says.” – Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz

Your brain is your first line of defense, so if you can get some practice identifying fake news, you’ll be better able to identify it on your own. The best way to learn is to do, so use these games to practice your fake news identification skills.