As humans we believe what we see, hear, smell, touch and taste. But how do we know what is true and what is not?
Our ability to separate the truth from the falsities stems from a lifetime of being taught how to determine what we should believe and what we should not.
“We do not believe everything we see because we know that not everything seen is true, such as movies and television shows, and even set up affairs,” said junior Alyssa Moyer.
As young children we were taught that the fictional label means something was made up so when thinking about something we tend to look at the label to determine if we should believe it or not.
Other labels that help us believe things are the label on the sources from which they came.
“We look at the credibility of a source,” continued Moyer, “by determining how much of a reputation, [or label], it has.”
For example, the Kony movement was started by both a video and Facebook groups. The video spread like wildfire and the groups grew by the second.
“So many people got into Kony so fast that it was hard to not believe it yourself,” said Moyer.
The Kony movement itself had no credible source other than the fact that many people began to rally in its honor.
After the Kony movement surfaced, another video of a Ugandan girl saying Joseph Kony has been dead for five years began to spread.
“I was unsure what to believe since both of the videos seemed credible,” stated sophomore Franklin Rice.
Articles from many credible and not credible sources including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Lemon Global News, and InfoWars.com published different information of the Kony issue causing more people to become uncertain about the whole thing.
“There are many different opinions to the Kony matter,” continued Rice, “but that does not change the fact that people are unable to determine which side is more credible”
The Kony situation is just one example of where people come to the crossroads of choosing between believing and not believing something.
“We only have three senses that can be trusted without a doubt; touch, smell, and taste,” said Effie Demata, a freshman at Carlmont.
Studies by Harvard Medical Groups have found that people trust what they touch, smell, and taste the most because nothing in those areas can be fabricated.
Fiction and gossip have been shown to be the two main reasons that people trust sight and hearing the least among their five senses.
“People are probably aware of gossip because everyone tells lies so we have gotten used to spotting them,” stated Demata.
Americans have been shown to be able to differentiate truth from fiction beginning at a young age. Children acquire this skill through books, movies, television, and experience in school play areas.
These skills are continuously utilized throughout our daily lives without any notice, not only do they become ingrained in the way we think but we never lose differentiating skills.
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