News Literacy: News Views & Fact Checking Resources: Following the lead(er)

I almost liked this picture.  However… Just because you believe it… that doesn’t make it true.  I noticed this in my LinkedIn account.  I was drawn to it.  I agree with the “service leadership” concept, and so I was happy at first to accept the image and its “message”. Stop. Think.  I could comment on it, thus posting it onto my LinkedIn scroll, should I? Hmmm.  Since I have been doing talks on Fake News https://library.fvtc.edu/News and the ease with which people accept things they already believe, I was curious.  I decided to do due diligence.  This is what I found.  By copying the image to the desktop and uploading it to Google Images, restricting the year ranged from 2015 to 2016, I found the image a number of places, and 5 times on LinkedIn. A  good exercise in following the lead.   I then followed up on the name on a blog from jueves, 7 de enero de 2016 La fábula de la manada de lobos – attributing the picture to  Cesare Brai. Here are two debunking sites that address it: https://www.truthorfiction.com/photo-of-a-wolf-pack-explains-wolf-behavior/   and https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wolf-pack-photo/   Conclusion?  Do your debunking in the morning when you still have enough cognitive energy to care

Trying to find examples in nature, for  what we want to illustrate is common.

You can prove anything by taking your "proof" out of context. (This was something my dad always said)

The quicker you are to feel that "aha" of confirmation, the harder you need to question your automatic response.

Sometimes we don't even know what beliefs are being triggered, because they are unconscious beliefs.  

Learn more about your unconscious beliefs:

Whenever an anthropomorphic [an attribution of human-like behavior to non-humans] explanation is provided, question assumptions.