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Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by endisneigh on Friday August 13, 2021 @01:16PM (#28171709)
The identification of the so-called indefensible vs defensible information is probably the hardest thing here.

What’s something objectively indefensible that would require a course on misinformation to identify?

I also don’t really see how you can setup a control group - either this class is required in which case a control is not possible, or you introduce the massive selection bias.

The best way would be to assign people to taking this class, which I suppose could be straightforward. I sincerely doubt there would be any effect once you control for grades in something like English.

Re:Illinois Is the First State to Have High Schools Teach Ne... by ethbr0 on Friday August 13, 2021 @01:24PM (#28171811)
> What’s something objectively indefensible that would require a course on misinformation to identify?

Off the top of my head?

- Susie says the sky is blue. The sky is blue, because Susie says so.

- Frank says climate change is real. Frank is a convicted pedophile. Therefore, climate change is not real.

- Among all animals, only man is rational. Women are not men. Therefore, women are not rational.

- All humans are alive, therefore life begins at conception.

- Hacker News is the best source of informed commentary, because informed commenters comment on Hacker News.

And I've seen real world analogs of all of those on cable news shows.

> massive selection bias

This is something that experimental psychology has been solving for about 100 years. They're not bad at it.