Understanding Post-truth

Introduction
In a post-truth world, subjective biases and uninformed opinions have challenged or
replaced objective facts and scientific reasoning.

Technologies originally designed to connect global participants have created a profound

disconnect among users based on partisan ideologies and beliefs.

It is important to reflect on individual biases, as well as the preconceptions or prejudices

that are embedded in content and participant viewpoints.

Learn how to take charge of your learning by identifying your own strengths and areas for
growth.
History of post-truth • One of the first uses of the term post-truth, was in 1992. 
• Steve Tesich argued that as a society, we began to
accept a new post-truth reality as early as the 1960s and
'70s, after being disappointed by actions and scandals of
our political leaders.
• In 2004, Ralph Keyes wrote a book on post-truth and
argued that we all have a responsibility for post-truth
circumstances, especially when we use words such as
mis-speak, exaggerate, and spin to describe less than
truthful behaviors or actions. Reflect on your own
individual responsibility to advance and uphold the truth.
 What can we do as
individuals to reinforce a
truthful world?
Definition of post- • According to the Oxford English
truth Dictionary, post-truth is, "Relating to or
denoting circumstances in which
objective facts are less influential in
shaping public opinion than
appeals to emotion and personal
belief. In this era of post-truth
politics, it's easy to cherry-pick
data and come to whatever
conclusion you desire."
In other words, how individuals feel about an issue or the emotional
response they may have to a topic or concern has more influence in the
pursuit of objective and verifiable facts. 

This raises questions about whether facts or truth even matter, when

everyone can just arrive at their own conclusions based on how they feel
about something. 

If facts don't matter in a post-truth world, everyone can choose to believe

whatever they want, based on personal or political beliefs. 
Hierarchy of Truth

Facts | has a property of objective, verifiable, and realness

A thing that is known or proved to be true.

Objective Truth | has a property of being backed by reality

That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.

Opinion | Can be based on knowledge, but is generally unsupported and unverifiable.

A view formed in the mind about a particular matter; a product of one’s feelings
What if someone believes that the
Earth is flat? 
Does that make it true? 

• In the face of science and facts, this belief is on

shaky ground to say the least. 
• To believe that the Earth is flat is also
counter to documented photographic
evidence, including this beautiful and iconic
image of the Earth called Earthrise, taken in
1968 by Bill Anders, one of the astronauts from
the Apollo 8 mission, 
• and of course this image of the Earth
taken on December seventh, in 1972,
by the Apollo 17 crew.
Questions to ponder

• So how do we bridge divides between scientific facts and personal beliefs? 

• Is it even possible to do so? 
• How do we get out of our own like-minded communities to cross the divide and engage with people
who have different perspectives, while also supporting scientific evidence and reason? 
• How do we have constructive dialogue and energetic debate about such complex and contentious
issues, without losing sight of facts and civility? 
What is real?
What is fake?

In a post-truth world, it is
sometimes difficult to tell what is
real and what is fake especially
when the

“false information
is intentionally created
and shared through
social media.” 
Fake News?
• Even the term fake news has changed
in meaning during the post-truth era.

• At first, fake news referred to comedy routines

or parody of real news stories. Then it was
applied to the false information that circulated
during the 2016 presidential election. But the
term has since been appropriated to
describe any legitimate news or
organization that counters the prevailing
narrative.
Alternative facts = not true

• The displacement of objective

and professional news reporting by
alternative facts, is an attack on the Free
Alternative Facts
(Chuck Todd, NBC’s Meet the Press)
Press and one of the most destructive aspects
of the post-truth era. 
“Alternative facts are not facts
– they’re falsehoods.”
Tips on being a wiser consumer of information

• For instance, in order to look critically at the impact of bias and all sources of information, it is
important to actively evaluate content while also evaluating one's own biases. 
• Doing so involves the learning objective, acknowledging that content is not always produced for
legitimate reasons, and biases exist both subtle and overt. 
Tips on being a wiser consumer of information

• Engage with all intellectual property, ethically, and responsibly. This allows us to better

understand how information is created and shared and the ethical considerations that go along with
being a consumer and producer of information. One of the supporting objectives for this goal is to
identify and follow the specific intellectual property attribution expectations in the setting in which
you are working. 
Tips on being a wiser consumer of information

• The collaborative dimension of this process is to produce and share information in collaborative
and participatory environments. This requires you to apply the learning objective to see yourself as
a creator of information, and to participate conscientiously in collaborative spaces. 
Tips on being a wiser consumer of information

• Develop learning strategies to meet lifelong personal and professional goals. This is a continuous

process that requires you to put into practice the objective to engage in informed self-directed
learning, that encourages a broader worldview.
In a post-truth world, individual biases and partisan divides present
many challenges to the understanding of objective facts. We should
be reflective and empowered participants, who build on the
strength of connected communities to re-imagine a truthful world.
• "Having equal rights does not mean having equal talents, equal abilities, or equal knowledge. It
assuredly does not mean that 'everyone's opinion about anything is as good as anyone else's.' And
yet, this is now enshrined as the credo of a fair number of people despite being obvious nonsense."
• - Tom Nichols, from The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and
Why it Matters
Why expertise matters?
Imagine having a leak in one of your pipes in the house, do you:
- Learn enough to do it yourself?
- Do you call someone with more expertise?
Sometimes a need is too complex, or the stakes are too high to
rely on someone who isn't an expert.
The role of an expert

Remember that becoming an expert can take many years or even decades

of study or experience, failure as well as success, and the patience and
focus that is required to stay with a topic for that long.
• Our lives can move so fast and we're inundated with so many different types of information, much
of which is created without careful deliberation, planning, or resourcefulness. 
• Experts can help provide the very slow and careful process of researching, validating, consensus
building, that are necessary not only to help us make important decisions, but also to explore and
understand our world. 

Thus, placing a high value on experts is good for us as individuals and

good for society as a whole.
But what about authority?

Not all the information you consume is going to be

written by experts. 

• How can you begin to decide what information is authoritative enough for a particular need? 
 What is authority anyway?

• Authoritative information is not

only about the presence of truth, but
Authority (Oxford English Dictionary) also about making the truth
- The power to inspire belief in believable. 
the truth of something.
*there are several definitions, but this comes closest to our topic • This definition showcases in multiple facets of
authority. 
Authoritative Information

• Information that is authoritative then, contains useful knowledge, the truth of something, but it is

also presented within a context that is empowered to spread the knowledge by inspiring belief.
• This means there are aspects of credibility and authority that are perceived qualities, and you have
to decide what combination of elements need to be present in a piece of information for truth to
be perceived, believed, and accepted. That is, for it to be authoritative. 
Experts = Authority of Information

• When you think about authority, you might think

directly about the idea of authorship, and especially
the expertise and credibility of the creator of a piece
of information. 
• For example, if you think about wanting to quote an authoritative figure
in the field of astronomy, you might think of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Carl
Sagan, or Stephen Hawking. 
• These people have celebrated books and important positions – and
that means that you are more likely to believe them when they tell
you about the universe.
The problem of expertise

• Before when we try to write an opinion, our pieces get to an editorial board – comprised by a panel
of experts in journalism – before it gets out to the public.
• While decentralization of information is good, it has now turned the public discussion to a new
stage where experts, and non-experts, have their statements valued at the same level.
 "Having equal rights does not mean having equal talents, equal abilities,
or equal knowledge. It assuredly does not mean that 'everyone's opinion
about anything is as good as anyone else's.' And yet, this is now enshrined
as the credo of a fair number of people despite being obvious nonsense."
- Tom Nichols, from The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters
• But in today's world where there is so much information, misinformation, and false information
available at our fingertips, it is critical to be able to make distinctions when scholarly articles aren't
part of the mix as they so often are not.
• So it's important to think about how your assessment of the authority of a piece of information
might need to go beyond the question of who the creator is. 
For example, you might need to think about when the piece of
information was created, this could be a particular time of day or a
particular year or a particular historical period.

• Can you figure out why the information was created? 

• Can you figure out the format of the information? 
• This is like the container that's holding the information. Examples might include books, blog
posts, YouTube videos, scholarly articles, advertisements, songs, artifacts, tweets or reports. 
• Does that format have any implications that might impact your assessment of the authority of the
piece of information? 
• Is the information affiliated with an established incredible institution, government, or
organization? 
• What is the subject matter, and is the subject matter well suited to the other factors that you're
examining? 
• What about the style, the mood, or the character of the information? 
• For what audience was the information originally intended? 
• Finally, can you figure out if the information accounts for many different points of view and
perspective?
All of these elements among many others are a part of the context of the
information under consideration and can be essential factors in assessing
authority and determining the extent to which a given information source
is appropriate for a particular information need or a situation. 

Analyzing the authority of a given piece of information is a complicated task. 

 Experts do exist.

• While it is appropriate to do your due diligence to determine the background of an author or

information source, and to compare several trustworthy information sources about a topic, it is vital
to recognize that experts do indeed exist, and their expertise is built upon years of evidence-based
findings based on study, practice, and/or experience.
Different Cognitive Biases connected to post-truth and
proliferation of false information

• Confirmation bias / Cognitive dissonance

• Dunning-Kruger effect
• Belief bias
• Framing
• Status quo bias
Confirmation Bias / Cognitive Dissonance

• The bias to search or interpret information to confirm one’s preconceptions, and discredit
information that doesn’t support the preconception.

• Cognitive dissonance – the state of having psychological stress due to inconsistent information to
one’s ideas, belief, values, feelings, actions, forcing a person to do everything in their power to
change them until they become consistent.
Dunning-Kruger Effect

• People who are usually inferior due to lack

of ability, expertise, or experience regarding
a certain matter overestimate their ability or
knowledge.
• This is a form of illusory superiority.
Belief bias

• The tendency to believe arguments based on

your beliefs than logic or reasoning.
Framing

• This causes people to react to something in different ways depending on how the information is
presented to them.

WEAKEST PHILIPPINE PESO VALUE HIGHEST EXCHANGE RATE OF DOLLAR TO

SINCE 2005 PESO SINCE 2005
Status quo bias

• People tend to take preference to

maintain the current or previous state
of affairs, or a preference to not
undertake any action to change this
current or previous state.
Final words

• Think critically. Do not be limited by factors linked to any cognitive

biases.
• Recognize that experts do exist, and that they work within their specific
disciplines/communities to move beyond bias and disagreement in order to
find evidence-based consensus, which some might say is as close to truth
as we can get.