Which Information to Trust: Calibrating Your "Nonsense" Detector
As information travels from person to person and hand to hand, it sometimes becomes heavily distorted... And that's not even mentioning "fake news," the deliberately fabricated falsehoods circulated to deceive us!
Is it possible for readers, listeners, students, or even the casual coffee machine user overhearing their colleagues' conversations—in short, for every citizen—to protect themselves from falsehoods? Is it possible to calibrate one’s "nonsense" detector in such a way as not to "doubt everything," but simply to avoid swallowing anything and everything?
A talk presented by Florian Gouthière, science journalist at Libération, expert in fact-checking journalism, and author of the critical thinking manual Santé, science: doit-on tout gober? (Health, Science: Should We Swallow It All?, Belin, 2017) and the guide to unconventional healthcare practices Médecines alternatives et complémentaires: qu'est-ce qui marche? (Alternative and Complementary Medicine: What Works?, Les Arènes, 2024).