Information Sources: Deciding What’s Trustworthy

For my first post since the blog re-launch, I want to discuss something that’s becoming increasingly more important: evaluating your information sources.

The internet is a great thing. We all have so much information available to us. And now, with smart phones, that information is literally available in the palms of our hands. How long does it take to hard boil an egg? A quick Google search will tell you the answer.

But, how do you know whether the answer is correct?

In this day and age, finding trustworthy information sources on the internet is actually more complicated than it seems. For better or for worse, social media has given nearly everyone a voice. And, with that voice comes the ability to proffer opinions about or chime in with solutions to just about everything. The problem is, not everyone is actually qualified to offer up solutions to every problem, nor does everyone have your best interest at heart.

So, how can you tell what information sources to trust? How can you be a better consumer of information? I have some thoughts on that.

What Type of Information Source is It?

The first thing to consider when you’re deciding whether to trust an information source is the type of source that it is. What I mean is, are you getting your information from a book, a newspaper article, a journal article, a television program, tv news, or someone posting on a social media site? Some of these information sources are inherently more trustworthy than others. Why?

Primary Sources

Well, to start with, these sources vary in how close they are to the information being presented. Imagine we are playing a version of Six Degrees of Separation, except with knowledge instead of Kevin Bacon. Primary sources are things that contain the information themselves, like the diary of a person living through a major historical event or the results of a scientific research study. Primary sources are Kevin Bacon. They’re as close as you can get. And, as such, they’re the best type of information sources you can have.

Secondary Sources

We don’t all have the time to search and sift through all the diaries written during World War II, or the ability to understand the way scientific research results are written. That’s where secondary sources come in. These are Kevin Bacon’s best friends. They know him pretty darn well, and they’re able to tell us all about him in ways we can understand. Often, this is where scholarly books, literature review articles, and some newspaper articles fall. These types of information sources are not the original piece of information, but they’re pretty close to it.

They also can offer a level of synthesis that you can’t get from reading individual information sources in isolation. Books and literature review articles can give you a sense of what the majority of the research studies in a particular area are saying. Journalists will interview multiple people involved in a particular event to capture the experience and its impact in full. In other words, secondary sources can illustrate the bigger picture. So, there is a lot of value in this type of information source as well.

Tertiary Sources and Beyond

The farther away from Kevin Bacon you move, the less trustworthy your information source becomes. In part, this is because the information becomes increasingly filtered through a variety of lenses as it moves farther and father away from the original. Remember playing Telephone as a kid? You know, that game where a statement passes through multiple people, and you see how convoluted and distant from the original it is once it gets to the last person? The same thing happens to information as it gets farther away from the original source. Words and meanings get twisted, nuance gets lost, and pretty soon the original information is almost unrecognizable.

Most social media posters fall into this category, either because they’re reporting on something that was already a secondary information source to begin with, or because their information is too rooted in personal experience to be valid. (More on this seemingly contradictory statement in a bit!) So, when you start looking at information sources that fall into this category, it’s important to dig deeper into whether they’re trustworthy or not. You can do this by looking into other factors, like qualifications and motives.

Look at Qualifications

The next important thing to consider when you evaluate an information source is the source’s qualifications. Anyone can say pretty much anything on the internet, but not everyone has the knowledge or experience to back up their claims. So, you should always ask, what qualifications does this person have to give this information?

Consider the following scenario. You are going to build a house (or, really, you are going to have someone build a house for you). Who would you choose to build it? Would you rather have someone who likes to build stuff on the weekends as a hobby, or a certified builder with 20 years of experience?

I sure as heck know who I would choose: the certified builder! I’m willing to bet he knows all about the rules for constructing buildings, and he’s got a track record of being able to build structures that won’t fall down on your family the minute a strong wind blows. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be certified. And, he certainly wouldn’t have a 20 year portfolio of buildings. No one would be willing to hire a builder who couldn’t actually build! Given these choices, I would absolutely choose and trust the expert over the hobbyist. It’s the safest bet.

Expertise

Like it or not, it’s impossible for us to know everything there is to know about everything. That’s why we need people who specialize in a particular area to help us out. It’s why experts exist! In general, experts tend to be more trustworthy information sources than the rest of us (within their area of expertise!). They are simply more qualified to provide information on a particular topic. But, what makes someone an expert?

In general, expertise comes down to two things: education and experience. Most experts in this day and age have gone to school to study a particular topic in depth. Builders and auto mechanics will have gone to trade school, doctors have gone to medical school, scientists have gone to graduate school, journalists have gone to journalism school, etc. In a lot of fields, experts will also have to pass exams to become certified, licensed, or receive a degree that allows them to work in the field. Records exist to prove these credentials. These are good things to look for when deciding whether someone is a trustworthy information source because they usually mean that person has been willing to put in the time and effort required learn their field.

Experience is important too, though. Think about a skill you’re particularly good at, and now think back to the first time you ever tried it. The first time was probably not so great. That’s because it takes time and practice to become truly good at something! In general, the more we do something, the better at it we become. We gain knowledge as we practice, and we learn tips and tricks along the way that help us improve. Relevant experience is so important that sometimes it can even be a substitute for formal education. So, in general, an expert with more years of relevant experience is a more trustworthy information source than someone who is relatively new to the field.

Notes on Expertise and Experience

Note that I made a specific point of calling out the fact that experts are only more trustworthy information sources within their area of expertise. Your yoga teacher might be super into health and wellness. She may tout the benefits of a particular diet, sing the praises of essential oils, or attest that cabbage soup is a miracle food for weight loss. Don’t fall into the trap! Your yoga teacher’s expertise only extends to teaching yoga. She is certified to teach you where your body should be in a particular pose, how to modify a pose to work for you, and how to coordinate your breathing with the poses. She has knowledge and practical experience linking a series of poses together to form a yoga class. Anything beyond that, though, you should take with a grain of salt (unless your teacher’s day job is as a nutritionist, scientist, or dietician).

Also, don’t confuse practical, job experience with personal experience. Personal experience (i.e., this essential oil helps me focus) does not count toward expertise. When I talk about experience, I mean instances of performing the essential skills of a particular field. For a doctor, this means treating patients. For an auto mechanic, that means actually diagnosing and fixing problems in cars. Personal experience is something else entirely (and a topic for its own blog post).

Pay Attention to Motives

A third and final thing to consider when evaluating an information source is: Is this person/company/source trying to sell me something? And, let’s face it, the answer is probably yes.

Money, Money, Money

Advertising inundates our lives. Television programs are interrupted with commercials. Billboards line our major roads. Newspapers ad space and print whole pages of campaigns. Home repair companies and political candidates stick signs in your yard. YouTube videos are broken up by ads, and Instagram and Facebook are littered with sponsored posts. Blogs have ads placed among the content. Experts are paid to promote products. Nearly everyone is trying to get you to buy their product, service, or idea.

Basically, anyone who earns money off the internet (think social media influencers) gets it from advertising. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing. After all, we all need money to live, and businesses need to sell products in order to survive. Most products and services exist because they fill some sort of need. But, that doesn’t make them trustworthy as information sources, and it’s something to be aware of when evaluating a claim. Why?

Perhaps this goes without saying, but people who are being paid to promote a product or service are not always motivated to tell you the truth. Think about it: if someone tells you a product underperformed, are you likely to buy it? Probably not. And the company doesn’t make any money if you don’t buy their product. So, of course the seller is going to tell you what they like about a product or how well it works, even if it isn’t the truth. After all, money can be a very powerful motivator, and not everyone cares whether the thing they’re selling is bogus, especially when their livelihood is at stake. (Note: I am not saying everyone is like this. I’m sure there are good, ethical people and companies in the world too.) It’s an unfortunate truth, but money and truth are often at odds.

Corroboration and Validation

So, how do you know whether a product promoter or seller is telling the truth about their product or service? You find other, and ideally better, unbiased sources of information that are also saying the same thing. Think of it like getting a second or third opinion from a doctor, in a way. If all the doctors prescribe the same treatment, then the course of action they’re suggesting is probably a reasonable choice. (Note that doctors are also experts on treating patients, though, so they’re qualified to give this type of advice.)

Look for actual tests of a particular product that show it works before you commit to buying it, especially if the product is expensive or health-related. Those tests should be conducted by qualified people (like research scientists) who have no stake in whether you buy the product or not. This is a key point. It means that the people testing the product have no incentive to lie about whether the product works or not.

Usually, you can find this type of evidence in primary sources (Kevin Bacon!) like scientific studies and articles from well-known product review sites. These places have universally accepted standards for what it means for a product to be effective, and they clearly lay out their methods and criteria for making determinations. Their work is reproducible, and it is based on more than just a single person’s experience. They’re also required to disclose whether they have any connections to the seller or manufacturer, which means they’re less likely to produce biased results.

The Takeaway

I guess the moral to the story here is: be careful who you trust. There is a lot of information available in the world, and not all of it is truly useful. Some of it is downright misleading. I hope I’ve armed you with some good tips for whittling out the bad from the good, though. If your information comes from primary or secondary sources, unbiased experts in a field, and can be independently validated and corroborated, then you’re in good shape to make decisions. Happy information hunting!