Watching someone dig their own grave by being smug about their wrong answer can be surprisingly amusing. However, misinformation online is quite a prevalent problem in this day and age. And it’s likely that the internet is where such mistaken people find the false information in the first place.

Even if that’s not where they learn it, they might find supporting statements online nevertheless. Pew Research Center pointed out that, according to a 2016 study, people tend to seek information online that aligns with their views. (Even—or maybe especially so?—if they’re far from the truth.)

Pew Research Center also revealed that after the election in 2016, 64% of adults believed fake news stories can cause a great deal of confusion. However, as much as 23% of them admitted to have shared fabricated political stories themselves, whether by mistake or intentionally.

According to Pew Research Center, the way fake news spreads is based on people’s primal quest for success and power, which is why it’s likely to persist in the future. Experts predict that, “manipulative actors will use new digital tools to take advantage of humans’ inbred preference for comfort and convenience and their craving for the answers they find in reinforcing echo chambers.”

Another enabling factor for the spread of misinformation online is the fast pace of technological change. It is believed that the rising speed, reach and efficiency of the internet, together with an abundance of online applications, can magnify the aforementioned human tendencies to the extent that false information crowds out reliable information.

Studies reveal that nearly 40% of kids believe everything they read on the internet. But children can’t be the only ones who take whatever they read online for a fact. It’s likely safe to assume that most of us have bought something we saw online that ended up being false information at least once.

But then why do we continue to believe the online world, you may wonder? Well, Forbes delved deeper into that and pointed out that looking for information online is easy—why go to a library when you have an array of webpages ready at your fingertips? Moreover, there are also no gatekeepers scanning and filtering information.

“Instead of browsing a small carefully curated set of high-quality informational streams, our online citizenry are thrown into an ocean of almost limitless low-quality information, forced to expend considerable effort to forage for the rare bit of accurate insight,” the article read in part.

It pointed out that nowadays, instead of turning to a competent person, equipped with all the necessary knowledge, people tend to do a quick online search and click on the first link, whether it’s reliable or not.

Similarly to counting on the things online to be true, we tend to also believe the confident people around us. As a matter of fact, our brains are wired in a way that allows them to influence our beliefs.

According to a 2017 study, people base their beliefs on three main factors: personal experience, views of the majority, and views of the confident people. The study of 23 individuals revealed that the first two were positively linked to the reward system in our brain, responsible for how happy we are after choosing something. Yet, the third one—the opinion of confident people—was the only one to have an additional effect on that reward system.

The instances from the ‘Confidently Incorrect’ subreddit are excellent examples of why one should never blindly trust everything they see online or learn from confident people. Or at least, why they should fact-check the information. Luckily, a 2022 survey revealed that as many as nine in ten Americans actually do.

The aforementioned survey also revealed what social media platforms Americans trust the least with Facebook taking the lead—42% of the surveyed users said they frequently see debatable content on it. It was followed by TikTok and Twitter with 35% and 32% people respectively stating the same about them.

Posts that end up on the ‘Confidently Incorrect’ subreddit come from all sorts of social media platforms, which is why there’s always new content for its members to enjoy. If you’re done with all the examples of this list and would love to see more, check out our previous editions of people being smug about their wrong answers here, here, here, and here.