They say getting information off the internet is a little like trying to drink from a fire hose.

You get way more than you may want or need.

While that by itself might be a good thing, the bad part is that there's usually

a hidden payload of misinformation mixed in with just about anything you find online. Is that true? And if it is, what can we do to

purify it? We're going to find out right now on Skeptoid.

You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid. How to spot misinformation.

Welcome to the show that separates fact from fiction,

science from pseudoscience, Real History from Fakeery,

and helps us all make better life decisions

by knowing what's real and what's not.

Way back in 2007, I did an episode on how to spot pseudoscience,

which was mainly a checklist of fallacious logic

you could use to get a good sense of whether a particular claim

was based on sound science or nonsense.

That was a good list and it still stands, but since 2007, the type of claims we typically want to evaluate has changed.

The rise of social media algorithms has increased the number of ways that

scientific misinformation can be spun and also broadened the types of

misinformation you're likely to be exposed to. It's no longer just homeopathy and

9-11 truth claims. Today it's political and social claims

intended to outrage you and get you to share the content.

So in 2022 I did an episode on

How to Spot Fake News.

...