Artificial intelligence<\/a> and social media are turbocharging the spread of misinformation dressed as science. Lies that once travelled slowly, and stayed relatively local, now surge across the globe.<\/p>\nWhen people share mistruths \u2013 for example, about vaccines, paracetamol or clean energy \u2013 the consequences are real and sometimes tragic. Preventable diseases such as measles are now returning to Australian communities because of unfounded fears about vaccines.<\/p>\n
Misinformation is false or misleading information. Sometimes it\u2019s spread by people who deliberately lie about the facts; this is referred to as disinformation. And sometimes it\u2019s spread by those who just don\u2019t know better. Either way, it is becoming more pervasive and more corrosive at all levels.<\/p>\n
At a personal level, bad information can damage your health, lead to poor financial decisions, and undermine your ability to make informed choices. At a societal level, it erodes trust in institutions, poisons public debate, and pushes people to extremes. Ultimately, misinformation makes it harder to agree on facts, harder to work together to solve shared problems, and undermines the social cohesion and democratic resilience that Australians value.<\/p>\n
The good news? There are simple steps we can take to combat misinformation \u2013 especially if we understand why we are susceptible to it.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s top science advisory body to the prime minister \u2013 the National Science and Technology Council \u2013 last year commissioned landmark reports on misinformation. As a member of that council, I look forward to their release later this year. The reports explore why individuals and communities are vulnerable to misinformation, and what can be done to build resilience.<\/p>\n
The reports show we can be vulnerable to misinformation because of the way our brains are wired. Research finds humans are naturally inclined to believe new information \u2013 especially if it\u2019s simple, familiar, or comes from people we trust. The more we see it, the more credible it seems, even if it\u2019s false. Poor physical or mental health can also reduce cognitive capacity, increasing susceptibility to falsehoods.<\/p>\n
When faced with large volumes of information, we often rely on mental shortcuts. While they help us process the information quickly, they can backfire \u2013 especially when the information is emotional, threatening or comes from like-minded people. We\u2019re more likely to believe it if it aligns with our existing views or comes from someone we trust.<\/p>\n
In light of our brain\u2019s wiring, when confronted with new information we need to pause and ask: is this the best information I can get? Would it stand up to scientific scrutiny? Did it come from someone using the scientific method \u2013 a way of rigorously testing ideas through observation, hypothesis and experiment \u2013 or just from someone I follow online?<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t need to be a scientist to spot good science. If in doubt, look for scientific consensus \u2013 the collective agreement of experts that is based on accumulated evidence. It is built through repeated testing, peer review and open debate.<\/p>\n
Peer review \u2013 where scientists scrutinise each other\u2019s work \u2013 helps detect and correct errors. It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s robust. For example, early in the Covid pandemic, scientists initially underestimated the impact of airborne transmission. But peer-reviewed studies quickly corrected that understanding, leading to updated health advice. That is science working as it should.<\/p>\n
Trusting science isn\u2019t about having blind faith in scientists. It\u2019s trust in the scientific method: predict, test, observe, refine. Science questions everything, and while it doesn\u2019t claim perfection, it offers the best knowledge we have at any given time. It\u2019s not the only source of truth, but it\u2019s a damn good one. Almost every element of modern life \u2013 including the device you\u2019re reading this on \u2013 is built on knowledge gained through the scientific method.<\/p>\n
Sorting through information in real time is hard. If we\u2019re not confident doing that sorting alone, we\u2019re lucky in Australia to have organisations \u2013 like the CSIRO, our universities, museums, hospitals, and health and environment departments \u2013 that can provide the best available information. We need to cherish those institutions , especially when we face significant challenges, even if the best available information evolves over time. In addition to those institutions, education and civic engagement can also play a crucial part in sandbagging our communities against a tide of falsehoods.<\/p>\n
Some BS is easy to sniff out \u2013 cancer cure scams, flat earth nonsense and evolution denial. Other misinformation is harder to detect but just as dangerous, so we must be extremely vigilant because the stakes are extremely high. Our collective wellbeing depends on our capacity to distinguish credible science from persuasive fiction. It depends on our willingness to think critically, seek reliable proof from credible sources, and keep our BS detectors switched on.<\/p>\n
Prof Tony Haymet is Australia\u2019s chief scientist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ernest Hemingway famously said that every good writer needs a built-in BS detector. But in 2025 we all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-203007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}