Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about an effective way to correct misinformation,

why dinosaur fossils throw their necks back in a death pose, and an artificial leaf that turns atmospheric carbon dioxide into fuel.

Let's fuel some curiosity.

Research shows there's an effective way to correct misinformation.

And this is important because being aware of the world means updating old knowledge

and doing away with the facts that are no longer true.

The thing is, it turns out that it's really hard for our

brains to do that. Just ask any parents who's tried a new way of disciplining their

kids. And that

the study, people remember new information in a cause and effect chain.

If one link in that chain is faulty, it's hard to replace it.

And losing one link of the chain creates a knowledge gap we find hard to deal with.

Instead, we often continue to rely on old outdated facts. But how do you fill the knowledge gap once you found one and stop misinformation from spreading?

Lucky for us, this new research also figured that out.

Here's how.

When you figure out you've said or taught something wrong, it's not enough to say,

oops, I was wrong, here's a correction. Instead, the researchers say,

people need to explain the correct information with its cause and effect included, that is as part of a larger

narrative. Stories help us build mental models we use to understand how the world works, and research shows that connecting the corrected information to its own story can make it actually stick.

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