Scientists show how ‘doing your own research’ leads to believing conspiracies — This effect arises because of the quality of information churned out by Google’s search engine::Researchers found that people searching misinformation online risk falling into “data voids” that increase belief in conspiracies.
Outside of tech circles pretty much nobody seems to have noticed how bad google search has become over the least years - unfortunately there’s no single search engine that’s “general purpose good”, like google used to be.
It’s somewhat ironic that nowadays using metasearch engines often makes sense again - for those too young to remember, that was the default way of searching in the mid to late 90s, until google came along with consistently good search results.
Just yesterday I was stuck in a game and decided to look up some guides. The results were basically Steam discussions and websites ripping off the answers posted there verbatim into articles.
The worst thing is that this was still one of the better search results, because at least it wasn’t full of the usual AI-generated drivel.
I used Google back then and started using Kagi recently. The results I get remind me of how Google used to be.
The only downside is it’s a paid service, but it’s worth it for me personally
I’ve heard people talk about it on radio in a non tech show so I think people do realise it…
When google put their censoring in overdrive, I believe around 2016, I was out. I changed to duckduckgo, but then they also started to censor, so now i’m using Qwant. Been using it for a while. It’s pretty decent.
I assume the problem with kagi is the price, which is hard to swallow as we have get used to free products?
DogPile
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Yes. Let me Google that for you is no longer enough, a combination of search engine enshittification, state disinformation efforts by Russia and China, propaganda efforts by plutocrats, The Heritage Foundation and religious ministries and the removal of critical thinking trainig from public education in the US. Also mass politicization where the shoes worn by a candy mascot is grounds for outrage.
It seems to have lead to an era of the deep dive podcast where hosts cite sources. But its our responsibility to confirm those sourses when able.
Curious, but was there ever a time when critical thinking was taught in US public schools above and beyond what is being taught in public schools now?
US public schools are getting underfunded, of course, but curricula themselves have probably improved over time?
I honestly don’t really even know how to begin researching this particular line of inquiry, and I have a background in social science research.
It’s a complex answer, I think.
Yes, some curricula has definitely improved. And yes, there has been a concerted influence by disingenuous agents. And there has been a departure of skilled educators due to pay and treatment, allowing significantly less skilled, able or genuine teachers to enter the field.
So, while you could say “X is better”, that can mean very little if there is no one to teach it (willingly). So, to answer your first question: yes.
The biggest issue is that true information is behind paywalls while the lies are handed out for free.
Americans have an almost Pavlovian response to news at this point, where they fundamentally can not trust a source of information until that source suggests the reader begin taking erection medication.
true information is behind paywalls
Yup, no paywalls on right-wing garbage.
Yeah, it’s funny how leftists care about societal problems until it fucks with their wallets.
I guess that’s one thing the left and right can always unite on: greed.
Capitalists. You’re talking about capitalists. Democrats are still capitalists, therefore they are not “leftist.” You cannot be a capitalist and a leftist.
leftists care about societal problems until it fucks with their wallets.
Please elaborate
Leftists have been decrying the cost barrier to high quality information preventing people from easily accessing it for ages. SciHub is founded by and run mostly by leftists for example, and leftists tend to be very pro-piracy in general.
As mod of conspiracy_theories, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s bullshit
If you listened to the mainstream media, the last few years you’d think the economy was booming. If you did your own research and listen to experts like Adam Taggart or Wealthion, fractures in the housing market were apparent for almost a year before the mainstream media started reporting that
We grew up being told we fight for freedom when really we fight for a fascist apartheid ethnostate in the middle east
We grew up being told Weed was worse than alcohol
We grew up being told if you didn’t go to college, you couldn’t get a job, while cost of tuition and textbooks outpaced inflation
The media doesn’t exist to inform people. Whether your left or right wing I think that’s something everyone can agree on. From a political science standpoint, the media exists to create an agenda. Often times, that includes misinforming people.
Can doing your own research get you into some conspiracy theories? Sure. The problem with that is everyone’s conspiring, even the mainstream media
Also, the people “doing their own research” often aren’t intelligent enough to know what is real versus what is made-up garbage, and are gullible enough to believe whatever they happen to read.
Kind of a bummer that they’re talking about the phrase “do your own research” and misinformation, but didn’t include the paper specifically about the phrase “do your own research”.
Title makes no sense. Researchers did “their own research”. Experts and non experts do “their own research”. Simply there are people who knows how to do it and to draw meaningful conclusions from sources and data, and people who don’t.
It’s a reference to an attitude that is prevalent in conspiracy fantasy circles. It’s a deflection of ownership of ideas to lend them more credibility, it’s not actually about researching anything. There is no discussion about research conclusions or facts. there is discussion, but it’s the exact opposite of research, it looks like, what questions give the right answers and how to connect the conclusions to the data. What they mean by saying ‘research’ isn’t what it actually means. Conspiracy fantasy wants you to stumble upon coincidences to lure you into their worldview.
good point.
and not only drawing meaningful conclusions but also validating the data is correct in the first place.
Doing your own research isn’t the problem, it’s how you go about it that is, some will just believe whatever bs static gets put infont of them without understanding the data, how it was collected, etc. and some will blatantly cherry pick to feed their own bias.
Yeah, it’s not an inherently bad thing.
A big part of the problem is that people run to journals without understanding their purpose; publication is just the first step in peer review.
And then when people do a ctrl+f to search for a “gotcha,” they also eliminate all of the nuance and caveats that really explain the potential finding.
And some just define “research” as clicking the next video in the recommendation list, a list carefully crafted by an algorithm to keep people engaged by feeding more of the same.
when someone sees an article online about an “engineered famine” due to COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccines, and conducts an unsophisticated search based on those keywords, they may find articles that reaffirm their bias.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Confirmation bias is real.
SEO and Ai have been very heavy influincers in the degradation of journalistic integrity and reporting facts *while dumbing things down for clicks.
It led directly to a more radicalized and less informed public.
The vast majority of people think that the first answer on Google is still correct. That simply isn’t true anymore because people started to game the system and Google let them do it to gain a shitloat of ad money.
It’s disgusting that they don’t have the morals to rein things in.
That’s what they want you to believe. I did my own research and it turns out you are wrong. Checkmate atheist /s
Google’s IPO literally ruined the entire society. Don’t be evil!™
I remember a time when “doing their own research” was just “read”… Yes I read, please stop shaming me for it…
It’s because the education system is utterly outdated across the world. No digital literacy, media literacy, or health literacy in the curriculum but lots of things you’ll never need and forget to never be useful again within a few months. Studies should investigate things relating to this subject.
It’s also because of the quality of search engine results but both are directly linked, people need to learn how to use search engines etc.
It’s really ironic. When I was growing up our curriculum taught us how to be tech literate and we were stressed on the importance of reliable sources. In high school we discussed the difference between a primary source and a secondary source, and examined how bias could play a role within them.
I think this is a better way to explain the issue. Millennials were taught how to handle information and critically examine it. The boomers who taught us weren’t, and they’ve fallen into the deep spiral.
While conventional wisdom holds that researching the veracity of fake news would reduce belief in misinformation, a study published on Wednesday in Nature has found that using online search engines to vet conspiracies can actually increase the chance that someone will believe it. The researchers point to a known problem in search called “data voids.” Sometimes, there’s not a lot of high-quality information to counter misleading headlines or surrounding fringe theories. So, when someone sees an article online about an “engineered famine” due to COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccines, and conducts an unsophisticated search based on those keywords, they may find articles that reaffirm their bias.
This is interesting and something I hadn’t really thought about before. The Internet’s conspiracy circles are becoming a giant, weapons-grade “gish gallop”. The difference is that nobody is even arguing with the original conspiracy theorist so nobody even gets a chance to counter any of the arguments until they’ve become mainstream enough for those wishing to counter to be made aware of them.
A lot of those data voids are the result of the academic publishing industry too.
That’s another thing I hadn’t thought much about, but did see a bit during COVID lockdowns. People would stumble upon some paper published by whomever that was on a seemingly reputable domain, and without knowing anything about the subject claim that it proved things it didn’t and then reference those papers as proof.
Then they’d post on their own blog(s) run up some SEO, and boom, you got the beginning of a rabbit hole.
Excellent point.
