The Persistence and Peril of Misinformation

Complete the summary using the list of words.

A   constant conflict D   experimental subjects G   frequent exposure J    different ideas

B   additional evidence E   short period H   mental operation

C   different locations F   extreme distrust I    dubious reason

What happens when people encounter misinformation?

Although people have (5) to misinformation, there is debate about precisely how and when we label something as true or untrue. The philosophers Descartes and Spinoza had (6) about how people engage with information. While Descartes believed that people accept or reject information after considering whether it is true or not, Spinoza argued that people accepted all information they encountered (and by default misinformation) and did not verify or reject it until afterwards. Moreover, Spinoza believes that a distinct (7) is involved in these stages. Recent research has provided (8) for Spinoza’s theory and it would appear that people accept all encountered information as if it were true, even if this is for an extremely (9) , and do not label the information as true or false until later. This is consistent with the fact that the resources for scepticism and the resources for perceiving and encoding are in (10) in the brain.