Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

by Carl T. Bergstrom

We have civic motives for wanting to help people spot and refute bullshit. It is not a matter of left- or right-wing ideology; people on both sides of the aisle have proven themselves skilled at creating and spreading misinformation. Rather (at the risk of grandiosity), we believe that adequate bullshit detection is essential for the survival of liberal democracy. Democracy has always relied on a critically thinking electorate, but never has this been more important than in the current age of fake news and international interference in the electoral process via propaganda disseminated over social media. In a December 2016 New York Times op-ed, Mark Galeotti summarized the best defense against this form of information warfare: Instead of trying to combat each leak directly, the United States government should teach the public to tell when they are being manipulated. Via schools and nongovernmental organizations and public service campaigns, Americans should be taught the basic skills necessary to be savvy media consumers, from how to fact-check news articles to how pictures can lie. As academics with decades of experience teaching data science, statistics, and related subjects at a public university, we know how to teach this sort of thinking. We believe that it can be done without taking sides, politically. You may not agree with us about the optimal size of the federal government, about what constitutes an acceptable degree of government involvement in our private lives, ...