Social media and other new communication tools have changed the world mostly for the better. However, it is ever more difficult to know whom to trust and what to believe. The result is that we have entered what Singh describes as a post-trust era. Here we shine a light on how we can be more mindful of the role we play, sometimes unwittingly, in condoning and promoting fakery and how can we become more alert to how vulnerable we are to falling prey to fakeness and why it is so compelling. Singh gives us the bad news, “The way information spreads has become candy. The way it’s weaponized with technology is also happening in corporate America and it’s become much harder to tell fact from fiction, where information has become entertainment [and is spread not only] in honorable ways but sometimes in malicious, nefarious ways as well. It is a very big problem across our country in different spheres.” Singh goes on to give the good news and to suggest ways to overcome this drift. “First and foremost, we all carry responsibility. It’s a copout for us to blame our political or our business leaders or corporate America. We, ourselves, can step up and demand more. We are fortunately still a thriving democracy that works really effectively and we can make our voices heard. For example, calling out the media when we have more fiction than facts. The second thing, which is incredibly important, is for us to pay attention to the other side. I know it can be painful, it can be like taking bad tasting medicine. But we don’t know as much as we think we know. And [we must overcome our] overconfidence bias.” Singh encourages us to become more media literate and to participate in respectful conversations with others who hold opposing points of view. This will help us overcome what he calls our “naïve realism” and selective perception so that we ourselves don’t unintentionally become the enablers of the fictions and the fake news. He also gives suggestions for websites in which to seek trustworthy information.
