Unit 6: Selection Vocabulary 3

Those who answer these three questions in known-untrue fashion may intend their answers to communicate a truth deeper than the actual facts would indicate...

Although many people provide entirely accurate answers, researchers have repeatedly found that substantial minorities err when asked about these basic facts on survey questionnaires.

After all, few people are always courteous, few people always apologize for mistakes, and few are so scrupulously honest that they would make a statement that could cost them money if they could avoid the financial penalty through a minor deception that would remain undetected.

It is a more than mildly ironic comment on the vicissitudes of self-report survey methods that social scientists credit the person who admits to cheating at customs with greater honesty than the one who claims not to cheat.

The white lie typically offered in response to Q2 can also be seen as a reflected blue lie, providing a mirror in which the questioner can find welcome agreement with his or her own too-good-to-be-true perception (that is, I look just great).

Finally, misinformation is a cheap and effective way for political activists to alter debates about controversial issues.

Luckily, as people become more and more aware of misinformation, they can also get better at detecting it.

When you read a news article, do you ever wonder what the reporter thinks or feels about the issue, event or controversy they are reporting on?

Since the primary purpose of news is to inform, reporters have a duty to share information in as unbiased a way as possible.

Even though all journalists have their own opinions, they typically strive to be as neutral as possible in their reporting—representing all relevant sides of a story without placing too much emphasis or authority where it doesn’t belong.

Even though all journalists have their own opinions, they typically strive to be as neutral as possible in their reporting—representing all relevant sides of a story without placing too much emphasis or authority where it doesn’t belong.

When journalists report a story, they should pursue the “best obtainable version of the truth,” as journalist Carl Bernstein puts it, by finding and verifying all relevant details for their audience. This means they interview more than just one person—responsible journalists cite multiple credible sources, including documents when necessary, to get the full story.

In a recent study on dishonesty online, researchers found that while 32% of users on sites like Facebook reported being “always honest” in their posts, the expectations for honesty online are pretty abysmal: “Between 55 and 90 percent of participants believed others were lying at least some of the time about their age, gender, activities, interests, and appearance” (Misener).

Through the use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, phone calls, and photos of an acquaintance, Tuiasosopo managed to convince Te’o to fall in love with his imaginative creation, a feat that would have been a cumbersome, formidable challenge, if not impossible, had it been attempted face-to-face.

While this arrangement works for those who stand to make a profit from consumers’ attention, it promotes ambiguity and scandal at the expense of informative, meaningful communication via social media.

Social media, like any other advancement, is not a perfect tool; some people will surely misuse it, but that does not negate its usefulness.

This ubiquity, both the increasing number of people who use the platform and the frequency of their use, is not without consequence: billions of people are using a platform that connects them to other people who know details about their lives, which creates an increasingly large pool of people who are adept at using the internet, including social media, to fact-check a post and catch users in a lie.