DebunkThis

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Debunking pseudoscience, myths, and spurious hogwash since 2010.

We are an evidence-based Reddit/Lemmy community dedicated to taking an objective look at questionable theories, dodgy news sources, bold-faced claims, and suspicious studies.

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Title formatting on all posts should be "Debunk This: [main claim]"

Example: "Debunk This: Chemicals in the water are turning the frogs gay."

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Links

Suggested Fediverse Communities

• RFK Jr. Watch @lemm.ee - Discuss misinformation being spread by antivaxxer politician, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
• Skeptic @lemmy.world - Discuss pseudoscience, quackery, and bald-faced BS
• Skeptic @kbin.social - The above, just on Kbin
• Science Communication @mander.xyz - Discuss science literacy and media reporting

Useful Resources

• Common examples of misleading graphs - How to spot dodgy infographics
• Metabunk.org - a message board dedicated to debunking popular conspiracies
• Media Bias / Fact Check - Great resource for current news fact checking + checking a source's political bias
• Science Based Medicine - A scientific look at current issues and controversies
• Deplatform Disease - A medical blog that specifically counters anti-COVID-vaccine claims
• Respectful Insolence - David Gorsky's blog on antivax shenanigans, politics, and pseudoscience

founded 1 year ago

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Debunk This: Boomers better at identifying online misinformation than Gen Zers and millennials (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This headline seems dubious on the face of it.

Did the study results actually show this? If so, could simply spending more time online account for doing worse on this test?

Also, just for fun, you can take the test here. I got two wrong and I have no idea which ones they were 😅

top 2 comments

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Well, there's also data that shows that boomers share more misinformation. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/boomers-misinformation-facebook-study-1005148/

But that doesn't necessarily mean they believe more of it.

Anyway, I very much missed a "could be true but not idea because I don't know anything about that country" and a "could be exaggeration of real thing" button in that test. So I guess a problem could be that the survey tests for general knowledge and not gullibility.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I got a 19/20, and it reports the one missing point as being slightly skeptical. I'm guessing it was this headline, which I marked as fake: "International Relations Experts and US Public Agree: America Is Less Respected Globally."

I feel like this is actually a test of two things: first, can you recognize the form that headlines tend to take? and second, can you recognize the kinds of things the media would be willing to say? The reason I marked that headline as fake is because it sounds slightly more casual than I'd expect.

So it's no surprise that boomers would be able to answer those particular questions with more accuracy, because they grew up with headlines looking like the "real" headlines in the survey. Or put very bluntly, this is primarily a survey of how in-touch you are with boomers' mode of journalism.

Boomers score highest on this test.

Stop the presses.