False knowledge
False knowledge is not fake news; it is much worse. It is embedded in our beliefs as we learned it from a trusted source that we would not, or could not, challenge to prove that knowledge. We accepted that knowledge as being the truth. Consequently, we instinctively reject a, true, fact that is conflicting with our, false, belief. even when presented with easily verifiable proof.
Consider these statements:
Things we believe to be true = knowledge.
Things that are not true = false.
Things that are not true, but we believe to be true = false knowledge.
Why do we believe?
Because someone we trust told us their truth. Much of our false knowledge originated when we were young, we trusted our parents, our teachers, and often our priest or monk. We trusted them implicitly and consequently trusted the knowledge they gave us without question or challenge.
Some of that knowledge was false; either they themselves learned it the same way as we did, or because they are bound to follow doctrine, scriptures, curricula, or culture, even if they may not believe it themselves.
False knowledge is far worse than ignorance because if we don't know something, we are inclined to look for answers, as we want to learn. But if we already "know" about something, our instinctive reaction is to ignore or resist an answer that conflicts with what we think we know. Let's look at the two main causes of false knowledge:
Cognitive biases
Best described as mental shortcuts; reacting without thinking. For example:
Availability heuristic: greatly misjudging the frequency of an event because of media coverage, or the lack of it, like overestimating shark attacks, and underestimating diabetes deaths.
Confirmation bias: preference to believe information that confirms already acquired beliefs. This is the most common fundamental cause of false knowledge as it encompasses everything back to childhood. Cultural bias described above is confirmation bias.
Cultural bias
This is the most difficult bias to overcome, you grew up with it and, for most people, you are living in that culture today. Culture is a mixture of facts and myths that cannot be challenged or contradicted within that society. Making it worse is that respectful people from other cultures would not challenge your beliefs. It is the civilized thing to do to live peacefully with each other. Unless you express doubts about something you believe, and ask their opinion, they will not tell you about facts that contradicts your beliefs. And when the cultural belief is based on religion, it becomes an argument between my false knowledge and your false knowledge. Hardly constructive and helpful.
Culture is a time paradox where the people with the strongest beliefs affirm that culture is timeless, it is static, while the nature of culture is evolution, change through time, leading to generational conflicts. The more religion is embedded in a culture the more static it is. In extreme cases, culture is frozen in time by enforcing false knowledge upon its people.
How to overcome:
- Accept that the source is not infallible. This is the hardest condition to overcome when that source is cultural or religious.
- Open yourself to consider a conflicting answer. Allow yourself to consider uncomfortable alternative answers. Sometimes it can help to look further out to the global world to realise that this belief is not broadly accepted. Not that you should side with the majority, but that it is worth considering facts with critical thinking.
- Apply critical thinking. Objectively compare what supports each of the conflicting "truths", the credibility of their respective sources, and the researched or scientific proofs backing each claim. Sometimes, even the facts seem to be conflicting, depending on context or purpose. When this happens, consider human ethics, what is best, or is least harmful, or consequential for human beings.
It is far more difficult to "unlearn" something we believe in than learning something we don't have past knowledge of.
Fake news is not false knowledge
Fake news and disinformation are "new information" that we are more likely to question or challenge as it is not knowledge we already believe in. Fake news is only effective through repetition and multiplication. Disinformation always existed in history, while fake news is an opportunistic ability made possible by the broad and instantaneous reach of anything on the Internet. There is so much information streaming past us that we tend to take it for granted as being fact without taking the time to check another source, or simply check where this information came from.
Personal beliefs are not knowledge
If you don't eat pork because of your personal beliefs, and you tell someone with different beliefs who does eat pork, "You should not eat pork", you are giving them false knowledge as there is no health reason for not eating pork.
While that may seem to be a minor difference, projecting, or imposing, personal beliefs onto others are the most common causes of conflicts at every level of society from relationships to national policies. Change "eating pork" to "abortion" to grasp the consequences of imposing personal beliefs onto others.
The effects of false knowledge
The funny ones:
- "You should not go swimming after eating"
- Origin in the early 1900s, Digestion while in the water causes cramps leading to drownings. Debunked a long time ago, yet still a persisting belief. - "Mice love cheese" - Origin in Medieval times, likely because of storage conditions. Popularized with the cartoon generation with the like of Tom and Jerry. Mice actually prefer nuts and fruits.
- "MSG is bad for you" - Origin in a 1968 letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. Leading to numerous scientific studies finding no link. MSG is classified as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS).
- "Sugar makes kids hyperactive" - Origin In the 1970s, by Dr. Feingold, a pediatric allergist, promoting his Feingold Diet to treat hyperactivity. Numerous subsequent studies found no link between sugar and hyperactivity.
- "We use only 10 per cent of our brains" - Origin in the late 1800s associated with the philosophical movement of pragmatism. Neuroscience has long since demonstrated that we actually use all of our brain, just not all at the same time.
The ones hurtful to your life:
- "You need to drink eight glasses of water a day"
- Origin from a 1945 recommendation by the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board, suggesting a daily intake of 2.5-liter (about 10 cups) of fluid a day. It was never about water, the recommendation clearly stated that food provides most of it. Potentially dangerous if ingested over a short time: hyponatremia, or water intoxication. - "Masturbation causes blindness, or worse"
- This is a mixture of very ancient beliefs, 18th century medicine, and above all, religious beliefs which is where the blindness claim comes from. Actually recommended for women with period pain, and in general to relieve stress, relax, sleep better, etc, etc.
There Are Major Health Benefits When You Masturbate On Your Period - WomenHealth
The ones crippling people's lives for ever:
- "Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)"
- If you think this practice remains only in remote parts of Africa, consider this:
An estimated 230 million girls and women alive today are believed to have been subjected to female genital mutilation, but the number of girls subjected to the practice will likely increase due to global population growth. …
Female genital mutilation is currently documented in 92 countries around the world.
As recent as the 1950s, removal of clitoral glans was practiced in Western Europe and the United States to treat perceived ailments including hysteria, epilepsy, mental disorders, masturbation, nymphomania, and melancholia.
