Truth Sandwiches

Satuday's numbers & a dedicated democracy defender

Saturday’s Numbers

We had 240 attendees on Saturday, down quite a bit from our previous week but just about 10 people under our average of 252.

Mike counted 884 neutral cars, Jay counted 260 supporters and I counted 26 Negative Nellies, but I also started counting people who rev their engines, which I hadn’t been doing previously.

Dedication

You think a little sprained ankle is going to deter a dedicated democracy defender from doing her patriotic duty? Think again!

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Be Careful Out There!

Folks, be aware that where the walking path meets the grass is not always evenly level, so it’s easy to take a wrong step and sprain an ankle.

More Volunteers Needed

Thank you to Mike and Jay for volunteering to count cars with our clickers!

We could use some more volunteers to do just that. It’s easy and fun.

We could also use more volunteers to wear the blue and red vests to help out on Saturdays.

We will especially need more of them for No Kings Day, given how many people we are expecting.

Just reply to this email and let us know what you want to volunteer for.

How To Fight False Claims Online

There are a couple of skills we all need to build: Media literacy and how to counter online mis- and dis-information.

Truth Sandwiches

A common tactic researchers recommend when refuting a false claim is employing the “truth sandwiches” framework. The idea is that you present the truth first, then the false claim, then refute and reassert the truth.

The danger when we first forward or repeat a falsehood and then contest it is that people see the falsehood first. It’s repeated. And the more something is repeated, the more people are likely to believe it. That’s why Trump repeats his message ad nauseum.

Framing your response by leading and following with the truth, prevents you from simply repeating the falsehood and lending it credence in doing so.

Prebunking

Another tactic is using the concept of prebunking, which works on the principle of teaching the pattern of deception rather than the specific fact. Psychologically, it’s giving people a schema of “this is how they might lie to you.”

The Bad News game research showed that experiencing simulated misinformation tactics in a playful setting increased later skepticism towards real misinformation. So memes that illustrate common misleading tactics (like a meme format “How to create a viral lie: Step 1 use shocking image, Step 2 fake quote, etc.”) could immunize parts of the audience.

What Are You Reading

Let’s start sharing our interesting reads. Leave your book recommendation in the comments below.