Why do we believe in fake news?

After "post-truth" was named the word of the year by the Oxford Dictionary in 2016, the issue of fake news remained a subject for reflection and a problem to be tackled. While some approaches suggest media literacy (media literacy), which means guiding people to understand media processes, there is also a deeper analysis of our subjectivity being conducted by psychologists.

During the most recent American Psychological Association convention, Mark Whitmore, an assistant professor at Kent State University, commented that at the heart of the tendency to believe in fake news is the brain's need to receive confirming information that harmonizes with an individual's pre-established point of view. "In fact, it could be said that the brain is programmed to accept, reject, confuse, or distort information based on what is seen as acceptable or threatening to one's personal beliefs," he adds.

Another phenomenon surrounding the problem of fake news is known as confirmation bias, which refers to the tendency for people to seek out and accept information that confirms existing beliefs while ignoring or even rejecting arguments that contradict them.

These beliefs, as explained by psychologist Dr. Eve Whitmore, are formed during childhood when children begin to distinguish between fantasy and reality, meaning some of these beliefs may be based on fantasies and end up leading to adult reasoning based on nonsense. "From the beginning, parents reinforce a child's ability to pretend in order to deal with the reality inherent in culture and society. When children learn to play make-believe and master this skill, it can eventually become a complex form of self-deception and illusion in adulthood."

Mimetic practice and make-believe are part of childhood play, which is actually very important for our development as individuals, as Johann Huizinga explains in *Homo Ludens*, for example. It is in these make-believe games that a child can pretend to be a doll's mother or a toy truck driver to assimilate the rules and cultural conventions of the adult world. But, on the other hand, children also end up believing that it is okay to invent things, and in fact, they may not even realize they are inventing anything at all.

This is because, as Eve Whitmore explains, it is during adolescence that we begin to develop greater critical thinking, which starts to question what we were taught to believe as children—and this goes far beyond the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus to encompass religious beliefs or even respect for authority figures, whether they are parents or government officials. However, it is during this "rebellious" phase that these questions can end up generating family conflict (the classic family dinner argument), but many of these teenagers actually prefer to rationalize these false beliefs to avoid trouble with their parents and relatives: that is, a teenager might not believe that "a woman's place is in the kitchen," as an uncle might have claimed, but prefers to try to accept it to avoid conflict.

The problem is that while some rationalize this conflict, others do so unconsciously, leading to an adulthood where these false beliefs and biases formed in childhood have not undergone critical judgment but have simply been accepted and absorbed, which affects how an adult perceives the world, as Mark Whitmore argues. "In this way, childhood beliefs persist throughout a person's life and serve as a foundation for processing information in adulthood. When trying to confirm pre-established ideas, a person may resort to both fiction and reality in order to preserve their opinion."

With the growth and development of the internet, as well as social media, all kinds of content and opinions are being published and amplified. "In today's media, channels are multiple and messages are often simultaneous and contradictory. The receiver is frequently confronted with paradoxical and seemingly absurd messages. It becomes easier to resort to a simple fiction than a complex reality," explains Mark Whitmore.

On the other hand, while psychologists can, to some extent, explain why we end up believing in fake news, they also have strategies to avoid this type of problem. One tip is to reduce the anxiety that makes confirmation bias seem so attractive. "A good defense strategy is humor. Watching comedy shows or political satire, although it doesn't really alter or change the source of the problem, can help reduce the stress and anxiety associated with it. Another way is sublimation, where you channel your negative feelings into something positive, such as running to work, participating in a protest, or volunteering for a social cause," the scholar recommends.

Another recommendation is for people to cultivate an open mind by deliberately exposing themselves to different points of view: this can help moderate our opinions and perspectives, making them less extreme. In this sense, critical thinking is once again an important element, as people need to learn to question what they hear, and this should start in childhood. "To develop a greater degree of skepticism during childhood, children should be encouraged to question things, thereby reducing confirmation bias. All these strategies have substantial research confirming their beneficial effects," the psychologist concludes.

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