“Your Brain Just Ignores It”: 50 People Share The Most Ridiculous Fact They Know

When it comes to life in the digital age, having a healthy amount of skepticism for everything you read, watch, and hear online is an absolute must. One study conducted by researchers from MIT found that false news spreads more rapidly than real news on the Twitter (now X) social network. And it’s not because of bots, either. It mainly comes down to real people retweeting false news.

“We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth, in all categories of information, and in many cases by an order of magnitude,” Sian Aral, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said.

The MIT study found that false news stories were a jaw-dropping 70% more likely to be retweeted than real news items. Not only that, but real stories took roughly 6 times longer to reach the benchmark of 1,5k people than misinformation.

Essentially, this suggests that falsehoods are more likely to go viral—and they do so faster and with more impact—on social media platforms than real news.

This means that internet users should take the time to double-check any claims that sound dubious, overly dramatic, ‘spicy,’ or have a clear bias. If it sounds too good or bad to be true, it probably is. (Real life is often much more mundane and nuanced.) In short, don’t repost/reshare/retweet anything mindlessly because you’d only be adding to the problem.

That said, skepticism is hard work. Double-checking every single claim that you come across in the news or on social media can be exhausting. Not everyone has the time to spend countless hours cross-referencing facts and delving into history books to refute iffy and spammy misinformation.

There are jobs to work, kids to raise, college essays to write, chores to avoid, and cute pets to photograph. That’s why evaluating the (un)reliability of a source rather than each individual fact is a better way to spend your time.

The News Literacy Project urges people to start things off by doing a quick search to learn more about a particular news outlet or reporter. You can look at the ethical guidelines and standards they follow and get an eye for the general quality of their work.

Are they transparent about where they get their information from? Do they link to multiple sources? Do they credit other people or organizations? Do they make corrections if they realize that they’ve made mistakes?

Credible sources aren’t afraid of owning up to errors. They are not secretive about where they get their data from. Nor are they scared of showing a more nuanced, rather than biased, view of the world.

Of course, no single source is going to be ‘perfect.’ They’ll make mistakes from time to time. But they’ll own up to them. And they’re still a better alternative than heavily politicized outlets with a clear agenda and a narrow view of things.

Which of the facts in this list surprised you the most, Pandas? What is the most ridiculous or bizarre fact that you personally know? What do you do when you stumble on a claim on the news or social media that you’re not quite sure you can trust?

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so if you have a spare moment, why not scroll down and share yours in the comment section?