I recently saw a post on Linkedin from a CEO who wrote about an interesting finding by a renowned academic institute followed by their own personal comments about the subject. Curious about the research, I tried finding more information on the subject but came up empty handed. I responded to the post, asking the OP if they could provide a link to the source of the research/study. Unfortunately, I never heard back from the OP and I never managed to find the original study.
While having good intentions, the OP’s comments could not be backed up and steered the reader toward a questionable narrative. Additionally, there were no sources leaving readers like me to wonder if there was any evidence of the study or finding being real at all.
I see this kind of post all too often. It’s on linkedin, social media, and even on the nightly news. It’s indicative of a larger theme. Regardless of one’s intentions, it’s far too easy to get caught up in the echo chamber of regurgitated facts and figures without doing due diligence. It’s easy to read a headline, skim an article, or post about something that may not even be true. It’s easy to sound smart.