How long will we believe in fake news? – 04/12/2024 – Education

Released on April 1, also known as April Fools’ Day, a new survey revealed that 88% of Brazilians have already believed in some type of misinformation. The study was produced by Instituto Locomotiva and used responses from 1,032 people over 18 years of age.

The data also shows that 62% say they trust their own ability to identify fraudulent content about electoral campaigns; political scandals; sale of services and products; public vaccination initiatives and other topics that, according to the report, are the most present in the flow of fake news.

The scenario is critical, if we consider that the topic of disinformation has permeated the Brazilian public debate with more emphasis and frequency for at least five years. Other research has already presented worrying indices and also pointed to the urgency of this discussion, which needs to reach the most diverse layers of the population through formal media education initiatives, inserted in the basic education system, and informal ones, located in other spaces to involve adults and elderly people.

If you can’t see the glass as half full, you can at least say that it’s not empty. This is because the survey respondents claim to have believed a lie propagated on the networks, which means that they admit the error and recognize that they did not verify the veracity of the information passed on.

Understanding that we are all, without exception, vulnerable to disinformation is the first step in understanding what role we have in combating its various forms, seeing the need to develop or improve our media skills to deal with the increasingly complex challenges of the environment digital.

No matter your background or profession: there is definitely a type of “fake news” out there for which you are the perfect bait. It could be about a politician you don’t agree with ideologically, the behind the scenes of your football team’s rival or a miraculous treatment for a disease that runs in your family. From the most “innocent” to the truly serious, there is no shortage of false messages about the most diverse subjects that permeate our personal and social lives.

Several studies have already highlighted the prevalence of confirmation bias in this context. We tend to believe in what confirms our system of beliefs and values ​​and refute everything that, in some way, challenges, confronts or denies these ideas, always mobilizing feelings such as indignation, surprise or even hatred.

The same goes for the moment of discovery that we are, in reality, faced with misinformation. The Locomotiva Institute’s own study highlights that the process of understanding that “we have fallen for fake news” involves several emotions, such as anger and shame, for example.

Therefore, the question that titles this article is practically impossible to answer, especially at a time when we see artificial intelligence advancing ferociously over the ways we work, produce and see the world, shaping a very uncertain future and calling into question the concept of reality.

For now, what we know is that we need firm and perennial actions that articulate public power, the third sector, big techs and the population, taking into account the heterogeneity and profound inequalities present in a country like Brazil. Otherwise, we will continue discussing surveys with percentages similar to those mentioned at the beginning of this text — and, probably, even more pessimistic.