Critical Thinking: Don't Get Fooled
Every lesson opens on a short narrated video, then shows you how to check a claim, a source, a number or a picture before you believe it or share it.
For anyone who scrolls a feed, reads the news or gets forwarded messages in the family group. Each of the twelve lessons starts with a short narrated video, then works through real-looking examples. You'll learn what counts as evidence, how professional fact-checkers judge a source in under a minute, why false stories feel true and spread fast, the tricks hidden in charts, numbers and viral photos, and how to change your mind, or someone else's, without a fight. By the end you have a simple routine for checking anything before you share it.
By the end you can
- Separate a checkable claim from an opinion and judge how strong the evidence behind it is
- Check who is behind a source in under a minute by reading laterally, the way fact-checkers do
- Spot the tricks in emotional headlines, misleading numbers and charts, and out-of-context or AI-made images
- Use a short routine to check a post before you share it, and change your mind (or help someone else change theirs) without a fight
Claims and sources
- Claims and evidence
Tell a checkable claim from an opinion, and rank evidence from a friend's story up to many studies agreeing.
- Who is talking?
Tell a first-hand source from a retelling, news from opinion and ads, and ask what a source knows and what it wants.
- Read sideways
Instead of studying a website to decide if you trust it, leave it and see what others say about it: the fastest check fact-checkers use.
Why false things feel true
- Heard it before, so it's true?
Repetition makes a claim feel true, even when you know better. Learn why, and how to correct a myth without repeating it.
- Believing with your team
We judge evidence harder when it threatens our group or our beliefs. See how identity bends reasoning and why people rarely dig in as much as we fear.
- Headlines that grab your gut
False stories spread faster than true ones, and strong feelings are the fuel. Learn the headline tricks and the pause that beats them.
Tricks with arguments, numbers and pictures
- The five moves of misinformation
Fake experts, impossible demands, cherry-picked facts, conspiracy thinking and false balance: name the move and it loses its power.
- Numbers that mislead
"Doubles your risk" from 1 in 1,000 to 2 in 1,000, a chart axis that starts at 50, and ice cream that "causes" drowning: the light-touch statistics tricks.
- Photos, videos and deepfakes
Most fake images are real photos in the wrong place or time. Learn reverse image search, what AI images give away, and why the source matters more than the pixels.
Thinking like a fact-checker
- Asking good questions
A short set of questions that open up any claim, and how to ask them in a group chat without starting a fight.
- Changing your mind
Hold beliefs with a confidence level, move them by the right amount when evidence arrives, and correct yourself in public without losing face.
- Check before you share
Put the course together into a 30-second check and a 5-minute check, and practise both on three viral posts.
Keep it, don't just read it
Pathwise brings each idea back just before you'd forget it, with a quick question. Free on Android and on the web, in English and Persian.