Suzette Turner-Clark Blog
Posted in: Mis and Disinformation
It is time to say farewell to 2024 and look toward setting smart goals for 2025 safety, health and happiness. Instead of the usual self-critical New Year resolutions based on ‘not being enough,’ why not use a gentler approach to set simple but measurable objectives with individual wellbeing in mind. Lasting change is rarely achieved with willpower. Instead, inform your plan based on science.
Many caregivers are wondering how to address the Nashville school shooting with kids. Adults are uncertain about what to say when a child asks about community shootings they learned about in the news or from school friends. Children may be frightened by rumors or inaccuracies about what actually happened and require a special type of clarification. It is important to be proactive and truthful in talking with kids, but they definitely don’t need to know all the details of the event.
Why do some individuals trust fallacies in the first place? One example may be if a piece of farfetched news is aired, people who lack the time, interest or ability to critically evaluate this news turn to social media to quickly scan what others think. Individuals can also have faith in false information because of confirmation bias, where we naturally seek out ideas to confirm our prior beliefs. Due to the large amount of data we must process on a daily basis, it is easier to fit new knowledge into our already established world view than to create a new line of thought.