7 Ways To Avoid Becoming A Misinformation Superspreader

This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from people in the TED community; browse through all the posts here. The problem of misinformation isn’t going away. Internet platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken some steps to curb its spread and say they are working on doing more. But no method yet introduced has been completely successful at removing all misleading content from social media. The best defense, then, is self-defense. Misleading or outright false information — broadly called “misinformation” — can come from websites pretending to be news outlets, political propaganda or “pseudo-profound” reports that seem meaningful but are not.

Disinformation is a type of misinformation that is deliberately generated to maliciously mislead people. Disinformation is intentionally shared, knowing it is false, but misinformation can be shared by people who don’t know it’s not true, especially because people often share links online without thinking. Emerging psychology research has revealed some tactics that can help protect our society from misinformation. Here are seven strategies you can use to avoid being misled, and to prevent yourself – and others – from spreading inaccuracies. Associate Research Professor of Social Psychology, Louisiana State University H.

Colleen Sinclair receives funding from the Department of Defense. The problem of misinformation isn’t going away – and may be getting worse, in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Internet platforms like Facebook and X have taken some steps to curb its spread and say they are working on doing more. But no method yet introduced has been completely successful at removing all misleading content from social media. The best defense, then, is self-defense. Misleading or outright false information – broadly called “misinformation” – can come from websites pretending to be news outlets, political propaganda or “pseudo-profound” reports that seem meaningful but are not.

Disinformation is a type of misinformation that is deliberately generated to maliciously mislead people. Disinformation is intentionally shared, knowing it is false, but misinformation can be shared by people who don’t know it’s not true, especially because people often share links online without thinking. Emerging psychology research has revealed some tactics that can help protect our society from misinformation. Here are seven strategies you can use to avoid being misled, and to prevent yourself – and others – from spreading inaccuracies. H. Colleen Sinclair writes: “The problem of misinformation isn’t going away.

Internet platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken some steps to curb its spread and say they are working on doing more. But no method yet introduced has been completely successful at removing all misleading content from social media. The best defense, then, is self-defense. Here are seven strategies you can use to avoid being misled and to prevent yourself—and others—from spreading inaccuracies.” Nick Potkalitsky writes: “We’re living through a profound shift in how text gets created. For the first time in history, our children will grow up in a world where much of what they read (homework help, explanations, stories, even ‘personal’ messages) might be generated by artificial intelligence (AI)...

Most AI literacy curricula focus on older students. By the time students reach high school, they’ve already spent years passively consuming AI-generated content without tools to evaluate it. The curriculum that follows teaches elementary students practical detective skills for the world they’re actually living in. Jane Jiang writes: “All too often, the library is not fully included in conversations that guide student learning and academic support. When the library is treated as background infrastructure rather than as an active learning environment, the entire academic mission is weakened. Students lose access to research instruction.

Faculty lose collaborators who can reinforce critical thinking and source evaluation. Institutions lose a key space where academic integrity, inclusion, and intellectual curiosity are nurtured, and the larger research community loses a vital foundation for sustaining these principles.” Anthony Sinnott writes: “Despite the undeniable advantages of e-books, what at first glance seems like a demonstration of the decline of print, in fact shows a story of the persistence of print. Despite tech advancement, print books stubbornly persist on library shelves. This post explores five core reasons why physical books continue to hold a vital place in the digital library ecosystem.” Also read about the enduring appeal of printed children’s books and the importance of... Librarianth, Nov.

28; Jane Friedman, Dec. 2; The Conversation, Nov. 25 This article by H. Colleen Sinclair, from Mississippi State University, was originally published by The Conversation. The problem of misinformation isn’t going away.

Internet platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken some steps to curb its spread and say they are working on doing more. But no method yet introduced has been completely successful at removing all misleading content from social media. The best defense, then, is self-defense. Misleading or outright false information — broadly called “misinformation” — can come from websites pretending to be news outlets, political propaganda or “pseudo-profound” reports that seem meaningful but are not. Disinformation is a type of misinformation that is deliberately generated to maliciously mislead people. Disinformation is intentionally shared, knowing it is false, but misinformation can be shared by people who don’t know it’s not true, especially because people often share links online without thinking.

Emerging psychology research has revealed some tactics that can help protect our society from misinformation. Here are seven strategies you can use to avoid being misled, and to prevent yourself — and others — from spreading inaccuracies. The best inoculation against what the World Health Organization is calling the “infodemic” is to understand the tricks that agents of disinformation are using to try to manipulate you. The problem of misinformation isn’t going away. Internet platforms like Facebook and Twitter have taken some steps to curb its spread and say they are working on doing more. But no method yet introduced has been completely successful at removing all misleading content from social media.

The best defense, then, is self-defense. Misleading or outright false information – broadly called “misinformation” – can come from websites pretending to be news outlets, political propaganda or “pseudo-profound” reports that seem meaningful but are not. Disinformation is a type of misinformation that is deliberately generated to maliciously mislead people. Disinformation is intentionally shared, knowing it is false, but misinformation can be shared by people who don’t know it’s not true, especially because people often share links online without thinking. Emerging psychology research has revealed some tactics that can help protect our society from misinformation. Here are seven strategies you can use to avoid being misled, and to prevent yourself – and others – from spreading inaccuracies.

The best inoculation against what the World Health Organization is calling the “infodemic” is to understand the tricks that agents of disinformation are using to try to manipulate you. One strategy is called “prebunking” – a type of debunking that happens before you hear myths and lies. Research has shown that familiarizing yourself with the tricks of the disinformation trade can help you recognize false stories when you encounter them, making you less susceptible to those tricks. The media misrepresented President Trump’s call for Members of Congress to be held accountable for inciting sedition by saying that he called for their “execution.” The Democrats and Fake News Media subversively implied that President Trump had issued illegal orders to service members. Every order President Trump has issued has been lawful.

It is dangerous for sitting Members of Congress to incite insubordination in the United States’ military, and President Trump called for them to be held accountable. • Democrats released a video calling for service members to disobey their chain of command, and in turn, implied President Trump had issued illegal orders.• President Trump has never issued an illegal order. The Fake News knew that, but ran with the story anyway. • Video of Democrat Officials Calling for Sedition• Trump accuses Democrats who urged military to resist illegal orders of ‘seditious behavior,’ suggests execution• Trump calls for arrest of ‘seditious’ Democrats who told troops their... A record of the media’s false and misleading storiesflagged by The White House. Scroll for the Truth.

Posted November 23, 2025 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch How many Trump administration executive orders, policy announcements, or social media blasts have you heard about this week? Can you even begin to name them all? U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have been said to engage in a strategy called “flooding the zone”—releasing a great deal of information with the goal of distracting the media and the public. (Almost certainly, they are not the only politicians to do this.

For example, Boris Johnson’s London mayoral campaigns were said to use the “dead cat strategy,” shocking the public with an announcement to distract them from news they preferred they not see.) The U.S. political application of this term, which was borrowed from the name of a tactic used in American football, can be traced to former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who said, “All we have to do... They'll bite on one, and we'll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang.” Flooding the zone might work as a political strategy, but it takes a psychological toll on media consumers. For example, polls show that 65% of U.S. adults have felt the need to reduce their media consumption because of information overload and ensuing feelings of fatigue.

Moreover, experimental research has found that a habit of closely following political news is a chronic stressor, often leading to negative emotions (Ford et al., 2023). But information overload doesn’t just undermine our psychological well-being; it can also undermine democracy. In a recent article, “Critical ignoring when information abundance is detrimental to democracy,” psychology researchers Stephan Lewandowsky and Ralph Hertwig (2025) outlined why information overload harms democracy and provided a strategy on how we... First, the authors share findings that information abundance causes misinformation because our ability to differentiate truth from falsehood decreases when we are overwhelmed and in a hurry. In fact, the research shows that overwhelmed people are more likely to share “things that are partially or completely untrue.” Why? Essentially, we’re more likely to share the splashy findings which are, in turn, more likely to be misinformation.

As the researchers explain, this information abundance harms democracy via several mechanisms, ranging from “triggering misinformation cascades to generating coping strategies that result in reduced political accountability.” The problem of misinformation isn’t going away — and may be getting worse, in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Internet platforms like Facebook and X have taken some steps to curb its spread and say they are working on doing more. But no method yet introduced has been completely successful at removing all misleading content from social media. The best defense, then, is self-defense. Misleading or outright false information — broadly called “misinformation” — can come from websites pretending to be news outlets, political propaganda or “pseudo-profound” reports that seem meaningful but are not.

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