Incredible Human Mind – Reflection Paper

Due: December 8th

Worth: 10%

People believe a lot of things that are not true.

1. Look through your Facebook/Twitter feed for at least TWO examples of someone posting
something that makes a claim that is not true (e.g., Tim Horton’s cups are laced with nicotine).
If you don’t have a social media account, think of two claims that you have heard from your
friends/relatives/somewhere.
a. It might be an interesting idea if you can use a conspiracy theory that you half-believe.
Finding out the truth about that might actually help clear up your own thinking. But
please note that it has to be a conspiracy theory and you have to debunk it with the fact
checking. So don’t choose something and then conclude your assignment by saying that
you still believe it.
2. Check this claim on a fact-checking website. You can use the following websites:

www.snopes.com

https://www.politifact.com/

https://www.factcheck.org/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/

http://flackcheck.org/

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

This website has a particularly helpful collection of tools for COVID and non-COVID fact-checking:
https://www.ccohs.ca/products/publications/covid19-fact-checking/

Or other fact-checking websites you might find.

3. Write up your report, including the following:

a. What was the claim?
b. Use concepts from our class to explain why you think people might believe this claim.
c. What did you learn about the claim after doing some research? Include links to the
specific information you found when fact-checking.

Note: If you do not find any fact-checking about the claim OR if the fact-checking is inconclusive OR if
the fact-checker says that it’s actually true, please choose a different claim to test.