The Campaign Against Truth – Part 4: Understand Yourself

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 1:7

Most of us have read this scripture many times. Many of us may have even memorized it. But typically, we stop after the first part of the verse, neglecting to finish it. Yet the end of this verse is just as important as the beginning, and it should give us pause when we read it. Take a moment to meditate on it: Do you despise wisdom and instruction? No one likes to think they don’t like to learn, but learning is a scary process. It has the potential to show us where we’re wrong or show us where we need to do better.

In the case of learning about ourselves, it’s an even more monumental task. But God didn’t promise us an easy life! As many writers of the Bible have observed, knowledge is key in our calling as Christians. God expects us to grow in knowledge! In order to gain knowledge, we must put in the effort to learn. This may take on many different forms, but the end goal is the same: a better understanding of who we are.

The Education Bedrock

So, how exactly does this fit into combatting truth decay and the campaign against truth? For starters, the foundational reason why people can twist truth is because people don’t know it. They put their trust in people to tell them what is true without any work on their part. It happens in so many different fields. People spread lies because they know the people don’t know the truth and won’t go check for themselves. Knowledge and wisdom are guards against wicked people.

Once we understand that education is the bedrock, we have to understand why certain things influence us. In the last blog, we talked about three particular areas that are major influences in today’s society: sensationalism, social media, and cognitive biases. Yet just knowing that these three elements can influence us is not enough to combat it. I believe there is a two-prong approach to combatting influences: learn about your influences and pick and choose your battles.

Playing to the Emotions

Most people know how others are influenced, but they usually don’t know how they are influenced. They may know they’re reacting or are drawn to something, but many times, they don’t know why. In the majority of cases, it’s related to our emotions. We gravitate to things we enjoy and, sometimes, to things we hate. Humans are emotional creatures. Without our varied emotions, we would be automatons – beings without any depth. Yet these emotions are also one of our many downfalls. It’s what causes tension in relationships and can make a peaceful event turn sour very quickly. So, ask yourself the tough question: What drives your emotional responses?

Sensationalism and social media influence people because they play to people’s emotions – good and bad emotions. Think about your experience watching the news: Do you get overly excited, angry, judgmental, depressed, or proud when watching or reading the news? That’s exactly what the media is looking for! Those kinds of emotions drive ratings and views. People want more of it, good or bad. They may not admit it, but deep down, that’s what’s influencing them. Sadly, though, it has lasting effects on people. Research has shown that pleasant emotions fade from memory more quickly than negative emotions.[1] That means there is a stronger connection to those negative emotions and memories. And with the number of news outlets and available information pushing stories that produce these kinds of reactions, it’s reinforcing those negative emotions. The creators of sensationalist media are counting on people to go back to the well, so to speak.

Aspects of social media follow a similar path. Facebook intentionally created their algorithms to show more of what people like, but it wasn’t created with nefarious intent. Instead, the negativity on social media was an unintended consequence. People use these pre-formed communities to cut themselves off from other people who have differing opinions or use it to engage negatively with people they don’t like without fear of repercussion. This mindset wasn’t created by Facebook; humans have always been this way. We now have a platform that allows us to divide ourselves along political, ethnic, social, economic, or national lines (just to name a few). But the biggest problem with social media is that we get information from people that we trust. Trust is one of the biggest factors in people being receptive to new information. This trust grows in situations where you have well-developed social networks.[2] You spend time with these people; you converse with them; and you take the time to listen to them. So, when many of your friends start posting unconfirmed information, we are more likely to trust their judgment. The reason why this is a big problem is that we’re giving over our ability to discern to someone else. Be honest with yourself: do you take the time to check information? Do you enjoy getting into fights on social media? These questions are just the tip of the iceberg. I encourage everyone to dig deeper to truly understanding what emotions drive you.

Thinking about Your Thinking

The way the human brain forms opinions and beliefs is quite complex. Our reasoning varies from person to person and is often impacted by our past and surroundings. The key to understanding this starts with understanding our mindsets or mental models. Our mental models create the framework through which we view the world. It’s created by our set of experiences, pre-existing beliefs, knowledge, assumptions, and cognitive biases. The problem comes when we have incomplete, incorrect, or misleading experiences, beliefs, knowledge, and assumptions. Yet these things apply to all of us. When we admit that, we have to work to understand our mental model.

One of the most important aspects is understanding our cognitive biases. These biases govern how we think about information. They impact how we view information. Something could be true, but our cognitive biases may influence us to react negatively or outright reject it. Think about how you view information: Do you see yourself gravitating to things that confirm your beliefs? Do you see yourself getting into arguments with people who think differently? Do you find it hard to let go of preconceived notions in the face of new information? Do you dismiss new information without evaluating it? When dealing with a problem, do you tend to go with the first solution that comes to mind? Don’t dismiss these questions! If you look honestly at your answers to these questions, you may uncover some important information about how you think. But those questions aren’t the only kinds of questions you should ask yourself. I would highly recommend doing your own research on cognitive biases[3] and logical fallacies[4] to gain a better understanding of some of the short cuts your brains have developed. A better understanding of your cognitive biases will help you limit how often you fall prey to improper ways of thinking.

Choose Your Battles

After you think on and analyze what influences you, the best next step is to pick and choose your battles. There are two parts to picking and choosing your battles: determine which influences to address and pick and choose which subjects are most important for you to learn about. It will be overwhelming to try and address all of your issues at one time, so think about which influences should take priority. And it’s hard to pick and choose which topics to be read up on, since there are so many things happening in the world today. That’s why it’s best to carefully choose what you focus on.

There isn’t a right answer in choosing which one of your influences you want to try and address first; however, it may be best to work on smaller goals to see more immediate results to build confidence. That doesn’t mean that it will be easy! But it may help you understand the challenge ahead, so you won’t grow weary from the challenge of addressing a major influence. Just like in dealing with sin, don’t think it won’t happen again to you. Influences are tricky things, deeply imbedded in our brains. Don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to change. One of the hardest things will be to change beliefs or habits that are wrong, especially if it’s tied to how you view yourself.[5] Don’t be afraid to change who you are. It’s what we’re called to!

When you’re researching a topic, it’s harder than most people think to find factual information. Because the world we live in has been flooded with information, it can be difficult to search through all of the falsehood and opinion and find the material you need to learn. Everyone has a blog nowadays on everything from “what natural herbs to take” to “why Congress is actually controlled by Big Oil”. That doesn’t mean that what they’re saying is true. It’s also not a reason to forgo educating yourself. But it is a reason to pick and choose your battles. And one of the key components of research is identifying credible sources that can be corroborated. Be warned: just because a piece of information is repeated, doesn’t make it correct! Corroboration is more than just another source saying the same thing. Look at the evidence. Does it make sense? Can it be independently verified? And remember: Just because something agrees with your existing belief doesn’t make it right! Don’t be afraid to challenge long-held beliefs, but don’t discard them right away either.

A Life Long Journey

Learning about your influences and how to deal with them isn’t something that you overcome in a few days, weeks, or months. This is a life long journey. Just like our battles with sin during our Christian walk, we will not completely overcome our influences in this life time. You may find ways to change your thinking habits and implement positive research habits, but our minds are made of flesh and blood; there is no way we can eliminate all poor thinking habits. As it is, sin is a poor thinking habit. And we’ll be sinning until the day we die.

That’s why it’s important that we make sure God is in every part of our lives. Even when we pursue information not related to the scripture (science, politics, social issues, etc.), God must be at the core of our search. It’s easy for us to get lost in the ways of this world – or even in condemning it. But it is not our job to condemn. God will take care of all of that. In the final blog of this series, we’re going to relate all these topics back to our relationship with God and our calling.

Endnotes

[1] https://www.memory-key.com/memory/emotion

[2] Mazarr, Michael J., Ryan Michael Bauer, Abigail Casey, Sarah Anita Heintz, and Luke J. Matthews. The Emerging Risk of Virtual Societal Warfare: Social Manipulation in a Changing Information Environment. RAND Coorporation. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2019.

[3] https://yourbias.is/

[4] https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/

[5] Mazarr, Michael J., Ryan Michael Bauer, Abigail Casey, Sarah Anita Heintz, and Luke J. Matthews. The Emerging Risk of Virtual Societal Warfare: Social Manipulation in a Changing Information Environment. RAND Coorporation. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2019.

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