The Empiricism Strikes Back: Strategies for Avoiding a Post-truth World
Despite a seismic shift in humanity’s ability to locate, analyze, and share data, we nevertheless appear to be careening toward a “post-truth” world in which little matters beyond whatever people want to believe. The challenge before us, then, is to becom
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The Empiricism Strikes Back: Strategies for Avoiding a Post-truth World John V. Kane
For those who simply want to know “the Truth” about any given issue, these are trying times. Despite a seemingly infinite well of knowledge at our fingertips, we struggle to determine what information is real and what is “fake.” The advent of the Internet, for all its benefits, allows for even faster transmission of even less substantiated claims. From cultivating far-right politics in Sweden1 to spreading anti-Rohingya propaganda in India,2 the use of Internet to spread questionable or inaccurate information is a challenge faced by citizens and governments around the globe, with growing concern that we are collectively careening toward a “posttruth” world.3 Indeed, we are confronted on all sides with pervasive misinformation and disinformation,4 entertained by false beliefs,5 trapped inside media “echo chambers,”6 and perplexed by rampant conspiracy theories.7 An ability to critically evaluate information has, therefore, become not only an absolutely essential skill in the present era, but also a means of
J. V. Kane (B) Center for Global Affairs, School of Professional Studies, New York University, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2021 C. Ankersen and W. P. S. Sidhu (eds.), The Future of Global Affairs, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56470-4_4
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self -empowerment; in particular, empowerment against propagandists who privilege persuasiveness over accuracy. Yet, two formidable (and perhaps mutually reinforcing) obstacles render such self-empowerment quite difficult. First, most of us are highly motivated to believe information that accords with our worldview (or with what we want to be true), and to disbelieve information we would prefer not to be true.8 Second, frankly, critically evaluating information is difficult. Even assuming one possesses the requisite motivation to do so, evaluating evidence can require considerable amounts of time, effort, energy, and, as any researcher will admit, sometimes does not even lead to a conclusive outcome. In effect, the first obstacle likely pulls us toward fallacious reasoning, while the second pushes us away from sound analytical thinking. When viewed alongside the powerful incentives facing the purveyors of misleading information, this state of affairs is ominous indeed. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the former obstacle, and make the second more tractable. Specifically, we must first appreciate the nature and consequences of the so-called motivated reasoning (MR), realizing that this is not an affliction that is exclusive to one kind of people—it is a global epidemic.9 However, merely being aware of our biases in consuming information is not the same as knowing how to more objectively evaluate it. Thus, the second part of the chapter aims to provide practical guidance for consuming information. The simple steps discussed below can prove useful in better assessing the legitimacy of claims that often have real consequences for our
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