Evaluating the information you find in your research is vitally important to finding and using the best quality and most appropriate information on your topic. We don’t want to be fooled by inaccurate information.

First: 1) Read a portion of Chapter 5 from the Information Literacy User’s Guide: pages 63-72. (Those are the document’s page numbers, not the PDF page numbers.)

Next: 2) Read this article: “I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here’s How (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” by John Bohannon.

Then: 3) Reflect on what you read and write about your opinions. Think especially on how the author of the article plays with our preconceived notions of authority, and of what’s credible. What does all of that mean to you?

Write a 1 page (or longer) reflection using these prompts:

In the article, how does the author’s exposure of argumentum ad populum (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or the belief in something just because it’s popular, give you insight into your own preconceived notions of authority or credibility?

How does all of this information relate to understanding the information creation process? How does this information prove the importance of evaluating sources for reliability, credibility, and accuracy?