BIAS & YOUR BRAIN
What is bias?
When what you already think or feel affects how you see something.
What is misinformation?
False or inaccurate information. It can be spread accidentally.
Name ONE of our four journalism standards.
Verify, Be Fair, Be Independent, or Be Accountable.
What does viral mean?
Information spreading quickly to a large audience.
You're on a website and see a news story labeled, "YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED NEXT..." What concept?
Clickbait
TRUE or FALSE: If a source is biased, the information must be false.
False. Biased information can still be factually true.
What is the BIG difference between misinformation and a hoax?
Intent/Reason for doing it
A journalist discovers that something in yesterday’s article was wrong and publishes a correction.
Which standard?
Be Accountable.
What does an algorithm do, in brief?
Algorithms help decide what content gets shown to people.
Someone discovers posts that make people angry get more attention. They make more angry posts. Why did they do this?
Incentives/It gets more attention
Jordan already believes school uniforms are a terrible idea. They easily believe every negative story about uniforms but immediately question positive ones.
What concept best explains this?
Confirmation bias.
Someone sees a false post saying school is canceled tomorrow. They genuinely believe it and send it to ten friends.
Misinformation or hoax?
Misinformation
A reporter hears an explosive rumor but waits to publish until they can confirm it with evidence.
Which standard?
Verify
TRUE or FALSE: If something goes viral, that means it is probably important or true.
False. Viral describes spread, not truth, quality, or importance.
A creator starts to notice that posts that are a bit misleading and attention grabbing get more views.
Name TWO concepts that could help explain what is happening.
Incentive, algorithm, virality, clickbait/ragebait depending on the post, system/feedback loop if correctly explained.
Why is confirmation bias hard to tell in yourself?
Because it is difficult to call out your own information that you (think you) know.
Someone creates a fake screenshot saying school is canceled tomorrow specifically to trick students into believing it.
Misinformation or hoax?
Hoax. It was deliberately created to fool people.
A journalist is covering a company while secretly accepting money from that company. Which journalism standard is MOST directly being violated?
Be Independent
A creator notices that their dramatic videos receive WAY more comments and views than their calm videos, so they start making more dramatic videos.
What is the incentive?
The increased attention, views, engagement, followers, money, etc. Any reasonable reward tied to making dramatic content.
A student says: “I don’t trust this article because it’s biased.”
Their partner responds: “Okay… but is anything in it actually false?”
Who has the stronger information-literacy response, and WHY?
The partner. Bias does not automatically make information false or useless. We still need to examine the claims and evidence.
Two articles describe the exact same protest.
Article A calls it: “Citizens Demand Change”
Article B calls it: “Angry Crowd Disrupts Downtown”
Both descriptions contain technically accurate information. How can BOTH still demonstrate bias?
Their framing emphasizes different parts of the same event and encourages readers to see it differently.
Why might a hoax include real locations, familiar details, or a trustworthy-looking source instead of making everything completely ridiculous?
Mixing false information with believable details can make the hoax seem more credible and harder to immediately recognize as false.
A news story contains facts that are technically accurate, but leaves out important context that creates a misleading story. Which journalism standard is MOST relevant, and WHY?
Be Fair. Fair reporting requires accurately representing information and providing important context.
Complete the simplified pattern: POST → PEOPLE REACT → ______ → MORE PEOPLE MAY SEE IT → MORE REACTIONS
The platform/algorithm notices.
A false story uses an emotional headline. People who already agree with its message share it immediately. The post receives thousands of comments, and more people begin seeing it.
Identify THREE concepts from this unit that help explain how the false story spread.
Confirmation bias, misinformation/hoax depending on intent, clickbait, virality, algorithms, incentives, bias, systems/feedback loops if explained appropriately.