Active BS Meter

jgnatca

My favourite blogger, "Not Running a Hospital", talks today about spotting BS and respecting science.

He further quotes an article by Pennycook, "On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound BS"

Is this good enough reason to challenge a fluffy post (i.e. "I heard bananas are bad for a diet"), even if it sounds cranky?

jgnatca

Hey, let's talk about this for a while and make it a discussion worth following.

jgnatca

Yes, I was thinking that very thing, watching my granddaughter and how she learns. When I was younger, information was hard. I'd have to live with my ignorance until I could access an encyclopedia. Nowadays, information is instant. But how to evaluate the credibility of the information? These days, research definitely comes in a lower case "r".

What is the point of feeding children information in school? Much better to teach them how to look.

blankiefinder

I would say it's true that some people accept things easily at face value, and some are skeptics. How many times have you seen something on Facebook that turned out to be not true, like don't drink cold water after a meal, it causes cancer', and things that seem much more plausible like missing children etc? And how many stop to check facts before they 'share'?

jgnatca

Aaaargh, urban legends grit my teeth. I can't tell you how many times I've responded with a Snopes link. I think spreading misinformation is damaging, as it crowds out the truth.

And I do think there are things known well enough to call it truth.