How errors become accepted as fact
We’re surrounded with misinformation, and it’s extremely hard to detect. That’s because most of the people who spread it have no idea that it’s misinformation. They think it’s true, that’s why they pass it on.
It’s happening everywhere, but the area I know most about is neurodiversity and mental health, and so that’s where I see it. I see how misinformation gets validated and credentialed and before you know it, something is accepted as fact.
The cycle works like this. Someone comes up with a theory or idea, and they often give it a new name or use existing terminology. For example, someone says somewhere (usually online) that ‘ADHD is caused by a dopamine deficiency’. Maybe there is a small research study which appears to show this, maybe there isn’t. Whatever the case, it’s not something that is scientific consensus, and it’s stated as fact rather than as a possibility.
In this case it isn’t true. ADHD is not diagnosed by detecting differences in how our dopamine system works. It’s a behavioural description, and there will be many reasons for those behaviours in different people. No one has scientifically shown that ADHD people have neurotransmitters which work differently. The ‘dopamine deficiency’ story is one which has been used for depression in the past, and it wasn’t true about that either.
However, it’s quite a catchy idea and it makes intuitive sense to people. So they share it. They make videos about it. They write articles about it.
The more people do this, the more the idea gains credibility. Humans tend to think that if lots of people say the same thing, it must be true. If you ask online, AI will tell you that it is indeed true, because AI draws on what is available on the internet.
Once an idea gains traction on social media, mainstream media starts to take notice. Articles start to appear in newspapers in which people state that their ADHD is due to a dopamine deficiency. There’s no fact-checking. People with large social media platforms write books, and they’ll repeat the same things in their books. Not because they are deliberately misleading people, but because they think that it’s true. The social media algorithm means that most people see lots of information that confirms what they think already.
So now we have mainstream newspaper articles and books, all claiming that ADHD is caused by a dopamine deficiency. People start asking professionals about it, and the professionals respond by going online and searching and they find information that seems to confirm that this is, indeed, accepted truth. They start writing articles for official sounding websites. There are multiple websites with medical names, and they’ll have blog articles. More books are commissioned, because people are searching for information. Then people start doing research, but not the sort of research that asks ‘is this true?’. It’s more the sort of research that asks people what their experience is. No one tests the basic assumption.
Professionals read those books and those articles, and they pass the information that they find back to the general public. With each cycle, it gains credibility.
Now we have (mis)information everywhere, telling us that ADHD is due to a dopamine deficiency. It has become effectively ‘true’, without ever being tested or scrutinised. Sometimes it then becomes part of people’s belief systems about themselves, so that if you challenge it, they get upset because you are contradicting their lived experience.
Once something is ‘true’ it’s hard to challenge, but if we don’t do so, then the cycle of misinformation will continue to turn. And the more it turns, the harder it is to stop.