Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at church (not a mosque). (AP photo)

By Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt
sswang@princeton.edu and sandra.aamodt@gmail.com

In this year's mud-filled presidential campaign, journalists have a responsibility to help the public distinguish fact from fiction. Unfortunately, current reporting practices are undermined by the quirky and often misleading ways that our brains process contradictory information. Understanding those quirks suggests four techniques to help journalists dispel false beliefs.

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, Americans increasingly get their news from multiple sources. More than one-third use Internet-based sources such as Web sites, blogs, and even social networking sites. Only a minority rely entirely on traditional sources, including print, radio, television, and cable news. The survey did not include chain e-mail, which has fed rumors that Christian presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama is a Muslim. This proliferation of sources creates competitive pressure on journalists to bend their standards in order to get a story quickly.

Our brains tend to remember facts that accord with our worldview, and discount statements that contradict it. In one Stanford study, 48 students, half of whom said they favored capital punishment and half of whom said they opposed it, were shown two pieces of evidence. One confirmed the claim that capital punishment deters crime, and the other contradicted it. Both groups were more convinced by the evidence that supported their initial position, a phenomenon known as biased assimilation.

This is one reason that propagandists can be effective simply by creating confusion. Unscrupulous campaign strategists know that if their message is initially memorable, its impression will persist long after it is debunked.

The human brain also does not save information permanently, as do computer drives and printed pages. Recent research suggests that every time the brain recalls a piece of information, it is "written" down again and often modified in the process. Along the way, the fact is gradually separated from its original context. For example, most people don't remember how they know that the capital of Massachusetts is Boston.

This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, leads people to forget over time where they heard a statement - and whether it is true. A statement that is initially not believed can gain credibility during the months that it takes to reprocess memories from short-term to longer-term storage. As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications may gain strength. Source amnesia could explain why, during the 2004 presidential campaign, it took some time for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Senator John Kerry to affect his standing in the race.

In another Stanford study, students were exposed repeatedly to the unsubstantiated claim that Coca-Cola is an effective paint thinner. Those who read the statement five times were nearly one-third more likely than those who read it only twice to attribute it to Consumer Reports (rather than the National Enquirer), giving it a gloss of credibility. Thus the classic opening line "I think I read somewhere," or even reference to a specific source, is often used to support falsehoods. Similarly, psychologist Daniel Gilbert and his colleagues have shown that if people are distracted from thinking critically, they default to automatically accepting statements as true.

Finally, ideas can spread by emotional selection, rather than by their factual merits. Memory formation is aided by the universal emotions of fear and disgust. Moral disgust played a role in 2000, when Bush campaign operatives spread false rumors that Senator John McCain had fathered a mixed-race child, damaging McCain’s support among southern Republican primary voters.

Journalists should avoid presenting both sides of a story when one is false - and take into account how readers' brains process the disagreements. The following four rules can guide their efforts.

1. State the facts without reinforcing the falsehood. Repeating a false rumor can inadvertently make it stronger. In covering the controversy over a New Yorker cover caricaturing Barack and Michelle Obama, many journalists repeated the charges against the candidate - often citing polling data on how many Americans believe them - before noting that the beliefs were false. Particularly damaging is the common practice of replaying parts of an ad before debunking its content.

A related mistake is saying that something is newsworthy because "the story is out there." Reporting on coverage by a less credible source such as The Drudge Report, even with disclaimers, will inevitably spread the story. False statements should not be presented neutrally since they are likely to be remembered later as being true.

2. Tell the truth with images. Nearly half of the brain is dedicated to processing visual information. When images do not match words, viewers tend to remember what they see, not what they hear. Karl Rove has said that campaigns should be run as if the television's sound is turned down.

Television journalists should avoid presenting images that contradict the story. One recent CNN report on autism was accompanied by images of concerned mothers, vaccines, doctor’s offices, and autistic children - even though the voiceover reported a scientific finding that debunked a link between vaccines and autism. Another recent story featured a threatening swarthy face subtitled "Obama the Antichrist?" - a statement that CNN would presumably not claim to be true.

3. Provide a compelling storyline or mental framework for the truth. Effective debunking requires replacing the falsehood with positive content. A good response to the McCain rumor, for example, would tell about his adoption of his adopted Bangladeshi daughter Bridget, thereby accounting for photographs of him with a dark-skinned child.

4. Discredit the source. Ideas have special staying power if they evoke a feeling of disgust. Indeed, brain pathways dedicated to processing disgust can be activated by descriptions of morally repellent behavior. The motives of the purveyors of falsehoods can provide a powerful story hook. A recent example is the press coverage pointing out Obama Nation author Jerome Corsi's motivations and past of racist Web commentary and allegations of Bush Administration complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

To avoid contributing to the formation of false beliefs, journalists may need to re-examine their practices. In 1919, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that "the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market." Our brains do not naturally obey this admirable dictum. But by better understanding the mechanisms of memory, perhaps journalists can move their modern audience closer to Holmes's ideal.

Sam Wang, an associate professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University, and Sandra Aamodt, a former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, are the authors of “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”

Comments

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excellent and concise article Posted by DCM 08/26/2008, 02:23 AM this article is an invaluable research tool for understanding the current election campaigning.

Posted by Jay Ballou 08/26/2008, 12:49 PM what reporters can do to stop helping them But they don't want to. What you're viewing as a mistake by reporters is actually, in most cases, intentional -- if not by the reporter than by the editor. This becomes especially noticeable if you track whether these practices are applied equally across the political spectrum.

Posted by Michael D. 08/26/2008, 01:03 PM The earlier comment was right about the news intentionally perpetuating rumors. The media companies are the primary beneficiary of campaign spending so they have no incentive to stop lies that cause a buzz. They enjoy a situation where the campaigns themselves spend money on them with commercials to try to counteract the false memes. What we need in this country is an a-la-carte system of buying cable television channels. That one move will bring change quickly as people refuse to subscribe to channels that lie to them.

Posted by M.O. 08/26/2008, 04:21 PM This is an invaluable comment and I wish that it would be read far and wide. Unfortunately the assumption here is that the majority of the press want to stop spreading false and misleading stories. The press should have an obligation to the truth but it appears the press deals only with the current narrative. The narrative may or may not mirror the truth, more often not, but facts will be ignored, amplified, changed as appropriate to fit the narrative. As an aside, how does source amnesia affect witness to crimes? Is this taken into account when training law enforcement in interrogation techniques?

Posted by M.O. 08/26/2008, 04:22 PM In the comment above, I meant to say that this is an invaluable article...

Author Posted by Sam Wang 08/26/2008, 11:30 PM Eyewitness testimony, despite its status as a gold standard for evidence, is amazingly unreliable. Memories can change a little with each remembering. Details can get filled in where none existed before. Courtroom lawyers know this. An established trick is to ask for more details in an effort to catch the witness in a statement that is contradicted by physical evidence - thus discrediting the testimony. A notable example of the unreliability of memory is the conjuring up of entire memories from whole cloth. The "recovered memory" movement claims that traumatic memories are latent, waiting for the therapist to pull them out from deep inside. But innocent people have been jailed on testimony that was sincerely believed by the witnesses - but false, implanted during repeated theerapy sessions. It's all in our book. Sam Wang

Posted by djd 08/28/2008, 01:18 PM So what if Jerome Corsi is a nut. Shouldn't journalists be in the business of reporting facts, which in this case means attempting to determine the truth of Corsi's reportage? Corsi's nuttiness might be a story in its own right but a journalist is making a mistake when he dismisses claims automatically because of their source

Reporters Posted by Thomas Golding 09/02/2008, 04:07 AM I agree with one on the above writers that unscrupulous reporters and politicians are quite aware of most of these tricks and use them repeatably. Rush Limbo makes one mistake though. He sometimes gives the original snippet of a speech and then refutes it. I usually find the original more congruent than his interpretation. A good example of repetition is that Iraq was responsible for 9-11. How many people still believe this?

Not convinced Posted by Neuro 09/25/2008, 05:11 PM How do you explain the re-election of Bush Junior ?

Freelance writer, U.S. 1 Newspaper Posted by Barbara Figge Fox 12/18/2008, 09:55 PM Sam, you lay out some difficult tasks. It's so much easier for journalists to do the "repeat and refute" routine. Perhaps having these guidelines in front of us will help us do the right thing. And by the way, I am really looking forward to hearing you speak about your book for the Princeton Chamber meeting on Wednesday, February 18 at the Nassau Club!

Posted by Peggybird 06/25/2009, 12:46 PM Very helpful and positive forum, I have already learned a lot from just reading? Peggybird

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