Two Truths and a Lie

Are you familiar with the ice breaker “Two Truths and a Lie”? The game requires participants to share three statements about themselves – two sentences that are true and one that is false. The rest of the group tests their knowledge of the individual in question and tries to spot the lie. For example: I’ve completed the Camino, I own a horse, and I love to rock climb. Which one doesn’t quite sound like me?

Scrolling through social media often feels like a big game of Two Truths and a Lie. But the parameters of the game are much shiftier. While most of us use these platforms to share photos, memories and events from our real lives, this personal scrapbook is mixed with news, advertisements, scientific studies, memes, TV clips, virtual garage sales, event invitations and public service announcements. A similarly dizzying effect might be achieved if you sat down for your morning coffee and decided to skim a couple of newspapers, a historical novel, a wedding invitation, a coupon flyer, six Christmas letters, a lawn mower repair manual, three birthday cards and a cookbook. Worse yet, what if you tried to digest all of that content just before turning your light out at night?

Discerning minds

Our minds weren’t designed to process so many different sources all at once. It confuses our sense of reality and plays with our ability to discern true from false. Psychologists call this skill cognitive sophistication. Nicole Mortillaro, Senior Science Reporter for CBC, argues that gaps in our ability to discern true from false is one of the reasons misinformation continues to spread around COVID-19. The key factors in excellent cognitive sophistication include “how receptive you are to information presented to you; whether or not you question your intuition; how well you understand probabilities; and how knowledgeable you are about some of the underlying scientific principles.” Some of these skills can be learned in a classroom, but many are just as likely to come from life experience, social influences and even personality.

Is there anything we can do to improve our ability to discern what is true from what is false? To answer this question, I suggest we meander from the psychology department over to the humanities, maybe grab another coffee along the way.

Genre matters

When a historian or literary scholar picks up a new source, they ask a series of questions designed to give context for the piece. When and where was it written? Who is the author? Why would they write it? What type of source is this? The answers to these questions are different for each genre. We see this in the Bible. The authors of the New Testament letters mingle the personal with the pastoral because they were writing to a specific church community where they knew and loved people. The psalmists were writing poetry designed to reflect the entire range of human emotion. The scribes who penned Kings and Chronicles were offering historical accounts that aligned with their cultural and political loyalties.

The concept of genre doesn’t have to be overly academic or intimidating, as Rachel Held Evans shows in her book Inspired. “I tackle this subject not as a scholar, but as a storyteller and literature lover,” writes Evans. “Understanding the genre of a given text is the first step to engaging it in a meaningful way.” In the book, she mirrors biblical styles in short creative writing sections interspersed between each chapter. She treats each genre like a costume, putting it on and walking around, just to show the reader that truth is found in each even when the layers and colours are different. We need to learn to recognize genres so we can continue to see truth.

Get curious

We don’t need to be scholars to understand genres, we just need an attitude of curiosity. As I encounter different types of content on social media, I find it helpful to think of each belonging to a genre. My initial questions to determine genre are all about authorship. Who is creating this and why? Is this creator earning income on this content? Are they a subject expert? Was this designed to attract a lot of views and shares? Is the content creator strategically using buzz words to make themselves sound more knowledgeable than they are? How are they asking me to respond? What are their goals?

I’m not suggesting that we ignore everything except for unbiased professional journalism. I don’t think that exists. Every journalist is a real person with experiences that shape how they write. Every news agency is receiving funding from somewhere. So we need to apply the same critical lens even to mainstream media.

The good news is that our Creator has equipped us with the curiosity to ask the questions that help us make sense of the barrage of content we face each day. He also calls us to love our neighbour, which might mean not commenting on or reacting to misinformation because those engagements will continue to push that content to the forefront. In most cases, a private message to someone we know is more loving and effective than publicly critiquing their choice to post questionable content.

Meanwhile, have you figured out which of my statements was the lie? If you ask my Instagram account, it appears that we completed the Camino because we got to Santiago. If you ask my Dad, he’d say that the horse is now his because he pays for the feed. If you ask the local climbing club they would say they’ve never seen me at the gym. While my social media presence may convince you that all three are true, I’d say the first one is the lie – walking half the Camino doesn’t count. As in most scenarios, you needed to know more about the author before discerning the truth.