Linked – What You Need to Know About the Misinformation Effect

I work in the legal industry, so I am familiar with the fact that eyewitnesses are not always reliable sources of truth. This week, I learned how slight misinformation can cause eyewitnesses to blend what they hear and read into their memories.

An example of the misinformation effect in real life can be:
If you witness a car accident and later hear a news report suggesting that the driver was speeding. Even if you did not see the driver speeding, your mind will add this detail to your memory, making you believe it is true.

https://www.calmsage.com/what-is-the-misinformation-effect/

Consider how we are all inundated with misinformation in 2025. It’s overwhelming our brains and creating false memories. We see so much BS that we know isn’t true, but parts of it still integrate into what we know. Throw in a slight cognitive bias that leaves us susceptible to fake facts that reinforce what we already believe, and it’s a perfect shitstorm that causes intelligent people to recall “events” that never happened or massively incorrect details about the ones that did happen.

Because if you read enough misinformation, you can’t help but be influenced by it. The people who put out all this false information know it, too.

The only way to combat it is to ignore it. We must leave spaces where it occurs, cut ourselves off from people and sites promoting it, and never share anything we haven’t vetted with trustworthy fact-checkers. We need zero tolerance for ourselves when it comes to false information online.

That’s why websites like Snopes are so valuable. Just yesterday, I saw several false claims pop up in their RSS feed that I had seen shared on my social media feeds by people who should know better but reacted because they fit a preferred narrative. The thing is, it was a day or so before Snopes debunked them. The internet and social media present us with a false notion of time. Every outrageous thing that we see must be shared now when we would do ourselves and our mental health a massive favor by slowing down. Not only will this help us determine if the thing we are about to share is true, but it’ll help us be more mindful about going back to those sources again.

There’s enough stupidity going on in the world right now. We don’t need to add to it by sharing misinformation. The people pushing this on us deserve precisely none of our attention going forward. That’s how we fight it.

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