Basics
A shocking post lands in your family chat. A photo, a few angry words, "share before they delete this!" Your thumb is already on the forward button. That pull is no accident. Researchers who studied over a million Facebook links and 44,529 tweets found that misinformation sources stirred more outrage than trustworthy ones, and that people were more willing to share outrage-stirring misinformation without reading it first [1]. The feeling comes first and the facts come later, if at all. So the rule for this whole article is simple: if it makes you angry fast, check it slow.
This article teaches five skills: pause on a strong feeling, read sideways, trace the claim and the photo, name the trick, and correct with a truth sandwich. Each one takes about a minute once you know it.
Step 1: Pause When You Feel Anger, Fear or "Finally, Proof!"
WHY THIS MATTERS
Most people say it matters to share only accurate news, but in the moment their attention is on the feeling or on their side, not on whether the post is true [2]. A simple question brings accuracy back. Across 20 experiments with 26,863 people, prompts that asked people to think about accuracy cut their plans to share false headlines by about 10% [5].
Across 20 experiments with 26,863 people, prompts that asked people to think about accuracy cut their plans to share false headlines by about 10% [[5]].
- Write down your 3 hot buttons today: the topics that make you want to share fast. Common ones are health scares, politics, crime, money and stories about your own group.
- When a post makes you angry or afraid, or makes you think "finally, proof!", take your hands off the screen and count slowly to 10.
- Ask one question before every share: "Is this accurate?" Rate it from 1 to 5 in your head. Share only a 4 or 5 that you have checked with Steps 2 and 3 [5].
- When a claim feels familiar, or feels exactly right for your side, ask: "Do I know this, or have I just seen it a lot, and do I want it to be true?" [6]
- Never share a headline you have not opened and read to the end [1]. If the link does not open, do not share it.
Within a week, strong feelings start to work as your cue to check, and fewer unchecked posts leave your phone.
Step 2: Read Sideways to See Who Is Behind It
WHY THIS MATTERS
A site can fake its own look: a smart logo, an "About us" page, a ".org" address. What it cannot fake is what others say about it. Education researchers Sam Wineburg and Sarah McGrew found that professional fact-checkers quickly leave a page and open new tabs to learn about the source. They call this lateral reading [3]. It can be taught. College students given lateral-reading lessons (136 students) were more likely than students in normal classes (94 students) to read laterally and to judge correctly whether information could be trusted [3].
- Use the four moves of digital literacy teacher Mike Caulfield on any unfamiliar site or account: stop and check your emotions, investigate the source, look for trusted coverage of the claim, and find the original [3].
- To investigate the source, open a new tab. Search the site's or account's name plus "who owns", "funded by" or "fact check". Read what other people and organisations say about it, and skip its own "About us" page [3].
- Look over the whole first page of results before you click anything. Fact-checkers call this click restraint [3]. Pick a known news outlet, public body or university over an unknown site.
- Give yourself about 60 seconds to answer two questions: who is behind this, and are they in a position to know? If you cannot tell, do not share.
- For messages forwarded in chat groups with no named source, treat them as unchecked until you find the original [3].
Within 2 weeks you can judge a new source in about a minute and say why you trust it or not.
Step 3: Trace the Claim and the Photo to Where They Started
WHY THIS MATTERS
Many viral posts are real items with the context stripped away, such as an old photo from another country or a video from a different event. Lateral reading means leaving the post to find out whether someone has already fact-checked the claim and to identify the original source [3]. The 81-study review counts image searching and tracing the original context among these verification tools [7]. Fact-checks work across cultures: tested in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Kingdom, they reduced belief in false claims, and most effects lasted more than 2 weeks [7].
- Pick the claim's key words and add "fact check" to your search [3].
- Look for a fact-checker that shows its sources and names its writers. AFP Fact Check (in many languages), Africa Check, Chequeado in Argentina and Full Fact in the UK are examples. If only unknown sites repeat the claim, treat it as unconfirmed.
- For a shocking image, long-press or right-click it and run a reverse image search [3]. Look for the oldest copy and check its date and place. A photo that appeared years earlier, or in another country, is out of context.
- Before you share, write one line under the post in your notes: "first seen: <date, place>" or "first seen: not found". If you cannot fill it in, the post stays on your phone.
Within 3 weeks you can find where most claims, quotes and photos started, and you spot old or out-of-context material before it fools you.
Step 4: Name the Trick, and Practise With a Game Every 1 to 2 Months
WHY THIS MATTERS
The same few tricks power most misinformation, whatever the topic. Learning them in advance is called prebunking, or inoculation: a warning plus a weak dose of the trick, explained, so you resist it later [4]. Psychologists Jon Roozenbeek and Sander van der Linden made five short videos on common tricks: emotional language, incoherence, false choices, scapegoating and personal attacks. In six randomised studies with 6,464 people and a YouTube field study with 22,632 people, viewers spotted the tricks better, and made better sharing choices [8].
The protection fades, though: after the Bad News game, the effect lasted 3 months when people kept practising, but faded within 2 months without it [7].
- Play one free prebunking game this week, such as Bad News, Go Viral! (about 5 minutes) or Harmony Square [7].
- Put a repeating reminder in your calendar to play again, or play a different one, every 1 to 2 months [7].
- Name the trick in 3 posts today. Use this list: emotional words, fake experts, impersonation (a fake account dressed as a real one), false choices ("either you agree or you hate us"), blaming a group, or cherry-picked numbers [8] [7] [4].
- For a fake expert, search the person: is this their field, and do most experts in that field agree [4]? For a number, ask: compared to what, over what time, and what was left out?
Within a month you name tricks faster and feel less pull from posts built to provoke you.
Step 5: Correct With a Truth Sandwich, and Fix Your Own Shares Fast
WHY THIS MATTERS
A false claim tends to stick even after people hear and accept a correction. This is called the continued influence effect [4]. A simple "that's not true" is not enough; corrections work best when they explain why the claim is false and what is true instead [4]. The Debunking Handbook 2020, written by Stephan Lewandowsky, John Cook and over 20 other researchers, sets out the truth sandwich: fact, a warning and the myth once, why it misleads, and the fact again [4].
Many people fear that repeating a myth spreads it. Three experiments with 1,718 people found that corrections did not strengthen false beliefs, even among people who had never heard the myth before [9].
- Fact. Lead with the true fact in one plain, concrete sentence, if it can be said simply [4].
- Myth, once. Warn that a myth is coming and name it one time ("A post going around says...") [4] [9].
- Why it is wrong. Explain why it misleads: name the trick from Step 4 and give one good source. If possible, give an alternative explanation that fills the gap the myth leaves [4].
- Fact again. End with the fact, so it is the last thing people read [4].
- If you shared something false, post a correction in the same place as soon as you can, ideally within a day, then delete or edit the original [4]. Say it plainly: "I got this wrong. Here is what is true."
Within a month you can correct a claim in four short lines without spreading it further, and you fix your own false shares the same day.
Track it
For 7 days, keep a simple tally in a phone note. For every post you share or forward, write "checked" or "not checked", and how (pause, sideways search, fact check, image search). Also time yourself checking who is behind 5 unfamiliar sites or accounts on day 1. On day 21, count your checked shares again and repeat the 5-source timing test. Aim for every share checked and about 60 seconds per source.
When to get more help
If a scary health post makes you want to stop a medicine or change a treatment, talk to your doctor or pharmacist before you act. If you think you have been scammed, call your bank using the number on your card. If someone is in danger, call your local emergency number. If a post leaves you so worried or upset that you cannot cope, find a free helpline in your country at findahelpline.com.
Go further
- How your own mind fools you, beyond news: Feeling Sure Isn't Being Right: Spot and Beat Your Cognitive Biases.
- Scam messages and fake calls: Stop, Check, Talk: Spot and Stop Scams.
- Kinds of false information and why it spreads: Why False Stories Spread, and Why Smart People Fall for Them.
- How feeds, bots and outrage bait shape what you see: See What Your Feed Is Doing: Algorithms, Bots and Outrage Bait.
- Tracing quotes and numbers, and checking breaking news: Search Like a Fact-checker: Trace a Claim, Quote or Number to Its Source.
- The share log, quiz and full plan: Become Hard to Fool: Your 6-Week Checking Plan.
