I don’t have a great solution. However, IMO people address fake news the wrong way: they focus too much on intellectual content and not emotional reasons peopl

I don’t have a great solution. However, IMO people address fake news the wrong way: they focus too much on intellectual content and not emotional reasons people have their beliefs. People like fake news because they want to believe it. It confirms an underpinning assumption, threat, emotion they feel. It’s more productive IMO to understand how people feel about something. A simple example is desperately wanting to go back to “normal” during Covid, or feeling their status or livelihood under threat (working class in the US and elsewhere) People reach for scapegoats and facts to fit the narrative they have. They have a strong feeling or grievance, and desperately want it validated. If the goal is to influence someone’s beliefs, when we fact check them, we can be seen as invalidating their underlying emotion or feelings. Instead it seems more productive to get the underlying issue out in the light of day and put less shame around it. As a society and individuals I have no idea how we do that. But I just know fact checking people often has the opposite effect and just makes people madder.