Understanding and Detecting Baloney

The Baloney Detection Kit by Michael Shermer is a series of questions that allows anyone to prove a story or claim to be true or false. Using this kit would help someone to discover truthful and reliable sources for research papers and other essays along with current events assignments and such. This kit is meant for the use in science but can assist anyone in doubt of information.

In the series of questions, the third one has always been helpful for me. “Have the claims been verified by someone else?” When looking for a current event, I compare stories from different websites and see if there are major differences from one to the rest. Along with that, any research found on the internet is difficult to prove factual without checking other websites and books for similar information. Not only did this question catch my attention, but “Are personal beliefs driving the claim?” is interesting too.

Many stories and books are written with bias and opinion which corrupt many people’s thoughts and ideas. To discern the difference between fact and opinion is mandatory to finding a trustworthy, factual story. Even if someone does not say, “I believe…” or “I think…” bias creeps into the media and is difficult to decipher the differences between fact and “fiction.” With the use of the previous nine questions in the Baloney Detection Kit, it is easier to gain the skill of finding false truth.

Everyday we encounter claims that, for the most part, we do not question. Remembering this Kit and each question posed within, we will find the truth and understand each story and claim more thoroughly. Even though this detection kit was meant for the scientific field, it can be used for our everyday life and benefit us.