REALITY CHECK

By Joel Achenbach[15]

The Information Age has one nagging problem: Much of the information is not true. We live in a time besotted with Bad Information.It’s everywhere. It’s on the street, traveling by word of mouth. It's lurking in dark recesses of the Internet. It’s in the newspaper. It’s at your dinner table, passed along as known fact, irrefutable evidence, attributed to unnamed scientists, statisticians, "studies." There has always been Bad Information in our society, but it moves faster now, via new technologies and a new generation of information manipulators. The supply of Bad Information is not the only problem—there may also be a rise in demand. Perhaps as a social species we have developed a greater tolerance for it as we desperately try to slake our thirst for intrigue, excitement, and mind-tweaking factoids. The plausible has been squeezed out of public discourse by the incredible. There are seven fundamental types of Bad Information. Obvious But Wrong Information. Also, the information was leaked, and leaked information always sounds true. Unfortunately, the FBI had no actual evidence, just a hunch.

Millennial Information. Earlier this year there was a great ruckus about "synthetic hormones" that pollute the environment and cause severe decline in sperm counts that threaten the future of the human race. One hot book title carried the alarming title Our Stolen Future. It had to be true, because the book’s introduction was written by Al Gore. The problem is, other researchers quickly challenged the scary conclusions; one declared that men are cranking out just as many little gators as 25 years ago. The human race will survive!

Diagnostic Information. You are terribly lethargic and go see a succession of mental health professionals. One says you are depressed, another says you are not depressed but have chronic fatigue syndrome, another says there is no such thing as chronic fatigue syndrome, another says you have multiple personalities because in your childhood your mother was a member of a satanic cult. You say you don’t remember your mother being a member of a satanic cult, and the therapist says that's a dead giveaway.

Statistical Information. A sociologist in 1985 reported that under California’s no-fault divorce system, women suffered a 73 percent drop in their standard of living in the first year after getting a divorce, while men’s standard of living improved 42 percent. The statistics were widely quoted, and influenced a trend toward reinstituting fault-based divorces. The sociologist subsequently admitted her numbers were wrong, the gap grossly inflated.

And finally: Historical Information. Everyone knows that Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake!" Except she didn’t. A fictional character said it. The most subtle but poisonous effect of Bad Information is the decline of intelligent conversation. It used to be that you couldn’t talk about religion and politics, but now you can’t talk about religion, politics, UFOs, phonics, nutrition, the Kennedy assassination, O.J. Simpson, Shakespeare’s true identity, proper child-rearing techniques, the significance of birth order, and whether power lines give you cancer. That is why Michael Jordan is so popular: He’s the only thing we all agree on. Man, that guy can play ball!