Critical thinking
Analysis of facts to form a judgment
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We include updates on Narcissism, Conspiracy theory, Cognitive dissonance, Straw man, Pseudoscience, Confirmation bias, Hubris, Progressivism, Propaganda, Rhetoric, Reason, Fake news, Paradox, Discrimination, Chauvinism, Moral panic ... and more.
| 2024 |
Propaganda
Bryn Rosenfeld and Jeremy Wallace published 'Information Politics and Propaganda in Authoritarian Societies' in the Annual Review of Political Science, examining contemporary propaganda techniques.
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| November 23 2024 | Misinformation regulation bill was withdrawn by the government after failing to gain sufficient support in the Senate. |
| September 2024 | A revised bill on misinformation was introduced to parliament and referred to the Senate Communications Legislation Committee. |
| March 2024 | Subsequent investigations by Western Morning News and Financial Monthly revealed that the allegations against Papaya Ltd were unfounded, clarifying that the company was conducting routine anti-money laundering inspections. |
| February 2024 | Times of Malta published a series of articles alleging money laundering activities and criminal connections by Papaya Ltd, which were later proven to be baseless by British investigative journalists. |
| 2023 |
In-group favoritism
A United States study revealed gender preferences in political candidate selection, with 22% of women and 13% of men indicating it was somewhat important for political candidates to share their gender.
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| 2023 |
In-group favoritism
Pew Research Center conducted a study on racial and ethnic political preferences, revealing varying levels of in-group favoritism across different racial groups in the United States. The study found that 25% of Black Americans, 17% of Hispanic Americans, 16% of Asian Americans, and 5% of White Americans considered shared racial or ethnic background as extremely or very important when evaluating political candidates.
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| 2023 |
Fake news in India
During the Israel-Hamas war, Indian social media accounts spread pro-Israeli disinformation, including misleading videos about alleged Hamas kidnappings and misrepresentations of conflict events.
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| 2023 |
Fake news in India
Indian media spread widespread disinformation about a padlocked grave in Hyderabad, falsely claiming it was in Pakistan to prevent body rape, which went viral and severely defamed Pakistan.
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| June 2023 | Draft bill on misinformation regulation was released for public consultation. |
| June 2023 | Patty Souza published an article titled 'Critical Thinking' in Teaching journal, contributing to the ongoing discourse on critical thinking in education. |
| 2022 | During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia passes a law prohibiting 'fake news' about the military, with potential imprisonment up to 15 years for violations, leading to mass exodus of international journalists and blocking of non-state news organizations. |
| 2022 | The voluntary code of practice on disinformation was transformed into a strengthened co-regulation scheme, with shared responsibility between regulators and signatory companies. |
| 2022 |
Fake news in India
The Tamil Nadu Government established a special Social Media Monitoring Centre under the Tamil Nadu Police to monitor and combat the spread of fake news and online misinformation.
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| 2022 |
Fake news website
The Italian magazine Panorama highlighted fake news published by 'Open di Enrico Mentana' website regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war, which was subsequently rejected by multiple international journalists and Ukrainian officials.
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| March 2022 | Coalition government indicated plans to proceed with legislation to regulate digital platform misinformation. |
| 2021 | Bolsonaro gave a speech downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming media reporting was 'fantasy' and the virus was not as severe as reported. |
| 2021 | The Aspen Institute's Commission of Inquiry adopts the term 'Information Disorder' in its investigative report, signaling a shift towards more nuanced terminology in discussing misinformation. |
| 2021 | TikTok's user base in Mexico tripled from 2019, reaching 17 million viewers, indicating increased social media engagement during the pandemic. |
| 2021 |
Conspiracy theory
Researcher Brendan Nyhan wrote that the persistence of misinformation is most likely due to factors other than backfire effects, suggesting a shift in understanding about how conspiracy theories spread and are maintained.
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| 2021 |
Stereotype
Döring and Willems conducted an experimental vignette study examining how sector affiliation influences stereotypes about employee professionalism, focusing on perceptions of public sector workers compared to private sector employees.
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| February 22 2021 | The Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation was officially commenced, following a government request for digital platforms to develop a voluntary code addressing misinformation and helping users identify reliable news sources. |
| 2020 | Brazil's Supreme Court initiated an investigation into a potential disinformation campaign by Bolsonaro supporters. |
| 2020 | Facebook removed dozens of fake accounts directly linked to Bolsonaro's offices and his sons, which were targeting opposing politicians and media. |
| 2020 | The Armenian website Medmedia.am, led by Gevorg Grigoryan, began spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, claiming COVID-19 was a 'fake pandemic' and discouraging Armenians from participating in vaccine programmes. |
| 2020 | Researcher Benjamin Weinthal from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and Jonathan Spyer, a fellow at the Middle East Forum (MEF), published an article on Fox News aimed at damaging Qatar's diplomatic relations with the United States. |
| 2020 | During the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook identified and banned publishers using troll farms from North Macedonia and the Philippines that were spreading coronavirus disinformation. |
| 2020 |
Fake news in India
The number of pro-India fake news websites expanded to 750 across 116 countries, as documented in the Indian Chronicles investigation.
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| 2020 |
Fake news website
The Polish Ministry of Health officially identified and labelled fake news websites related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| 2020 |
Conspiracy theory
QAnon conspiracy theory emerged, alleging a deep-state cabal of child sex-abusing and Satan-worshipping Democrats.
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| 2020 |
Conspiracy theory
Professor Michael Butter analyzed the alleged CIA document 'Concerning Criticism of the Warren Report', challenging claims about the CIA's role in popularizing the term 'conspiracy theory'.
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| 2020 |
Conspiracy theory
A scientific literature review was conducted examining backfire effects, finding widespread failures to replicate their existence, even under theoretically favorable conditions.
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| 2020 |
Conspiracy theory
A review article found that most cognitive scientists view conspiracy theorizing as typically nonpathological, recognizing that unfounded belief in conspiracy is common across historical and contemporary cultures.
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| 2020 | David Carl Wilson published the 2nd edition of 'A Guide to Good Reasoning: Cultivating Intellectual Virtues' as a University of Minnesota Libraries Ebook |
| December 2020 |
Conspiracy theory
An NPR/Ipsos poll was conducted measuring belief in various conspiracy theories in the United States, including QAnon, crisis actor theories, birtherism, moon landing conspiracies, and 9/11 conspiracy theories.
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| November 2020 |
Escalation of commitment
Berlin Brandenburg Airport was finally fully opened after being €6.5 billion over budget and 10 years behind schedule, with ongoing doubts about its viability throughout the construction period.
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| November 2020 | YouTube suspended One America News Network (OANN) for one week due to repeated violations of misinformation policies, specifically removing a video that falsely claimed to have a guaranteed cure for coronavirus. |
| October 2020 | A hoax claim about Woolworths stores reopening, made by a spoof Twitter account, was repeated without verification by major news sites including the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. |
| October 8 2020 |
Fake news website
Bloomberg reported that the United States government seized 92 websites used by Iran to spread misinformation.
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| May 15 2020 |
Fake news in India
The J&K administration released Media Policy-2020, declaring that individuals or groups spreading fake news could be de-empaneled and proceeded against under law, which was criticized by media experts as potentially suppressing free expression.
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| April 2020 | Berlin politician Andreas Geisel falsely claims that a shipment of 200,000 N95 masks was intercepted by US authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was later proven to be untrue. |
| March 16 2020 | Romanian President Klaus Iohannis signed an emergency decree empowering authorities to remove, report, or close websites spreading COVID-19 pandemic-related 'fake news', with no appeal process available. |
| January 6 2020 |
Conspiracy theory
QAnon and election result conspiracy theories led to the January 6 United States Capitol attack, demonstrating the potential for conspiracy theories to incite significant political violence.
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| 2019 |
Escalation of commitment
SoftBank Group invested billions in a rescue package for WeWork, demonstrating a significant escalation of commitment to a troubled company.
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| 2019 | Princeton and New York University study found that the likelihood of sharing fake news articles was more strongly correlated with age than other demographic factors, with 11% of users over 65 sharing fake news compared to 3% of users aged 18-29. |
| 2019 | Astroturfing techniques continued, with political hashtags being artificially pushed to trending lists and fake accounts created to simulate grassroots support. |
| 2019 | Viral photos of Amazon fires were revealed to be predominantly fake news, including a misleading tweet by French President Emmanuel Macron using a photo from 2003. |
| 2019 | Christine Michel Carter reported that one-third of Generation Alpha can identify false or misleading media information, indicating growing awareness of fake news challenges. |
| 2019 | During the presidential election, the losing candidate refused to accept the results and claimed fraud without evidence, leading to protests, rioting, and reported deaths of protestors. |
| 2019 | During the Hong Kong protests, the Chinese government was accused of spreading misinformation by describing protests as 'riots' and portraying protesters as 'radicals' seeking independence. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Stereotype, Propaganda, Critical thinking, Fake news website, Conspiracy theory, Fake news, Escalation of commitment, In-group favoritism & Fake news in India, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.