The first sort
Fact or opinion?
Stated as checkable, or stated as felt?
Critical Thinking · Lesson 8
Evaluating Information
beginner⏱ 15 min · 9 cards
The big idea
🔍
Finding it is easy. Trusting it is the skill.
Judging what deserves your trust is a repeatable procedure, not a personality trait.
Compare
How far from the source?
Primary
The original record
Tap.
tap for example ↻
Secondary
Someone retelling it
Tap.
tap for example ↻
A cautious finding becomes a confident headline becomes a settled fact. Nobody had to lie.
Try it
Source Checker
Who produced it?
The company selling the product, published on its own site.
What incentive?
Strong — the result determines sales. Not disqualifying, but it raises the bar.
Corroborated?
No independent replication cited.
Verdict
Treat as a claim to check, not as evidence. Look for independent trials.
Four questions applied to four kinds of source.
Key term
The technique that works
What do professional fact-checkers do differently?
tap to reveal ↻
Lateral reading
They leave the page and see what other sources say about it — instead of reading harder into a page designed to convince them.
Nuance
The tell
Maester Note
A strong emotional pull is a reason for more scrutiny, not less. That reaction is often the product, not a side effect.
Recap
Key takeaways
- ✓Primary sources beat secondary reporting; detail drifts at every retelling.
- ✓Systematic evidence outranks expert judgement, which outranks anecdote.
- ✓Ask who produced it, what they gain, whether it is corroborated, and whether it is current.
- ✓Lateral reading beats reading harder into a single page.
- ✓Strong emotional pull is a reason for more scrutiny, not less.
Quick check
What best describes critical thinking?
You did it
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