Instantaneous sharing of information (fallacious or not) to large and sometimes uniquely receptive populations is routine. Cognizant entities (individuals, groups, religions, governments, software agents, bots, etc.) can now selectively find information affirming what they already believe to be true by attending to information resources consistent with their existing preconceptions and ignoring or even filtering out information that is inconsistent. No specific entity class (e.g., Democratic vs. Republican) is more susceptible to misinformation vulnerabilities than another. Human individuals are particularly susceptible. Misinformation vulnerabilities are known to occur even unconsciously. This is well known to the intelligence community as confirmation bias (selective search, interpretation, recall). In any analysis or search, the easiest thing to find is what you are looking for. qually important, hostile entities or propagandists can selectively push information to other entities to influence the world views, opinions, and behaviors of the targeted entities. We argue that these dangers are potentially more severe in the cases of government officials, law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and military personnel – who daily make decisions effecting the safety, security, and the very lives of the general population. There is no reason to believe that misinformation proliferation and acceptance is any less prevalent among military personnel than it is among the population in general. This research seeks to characterize the technical characteristics that lead to proliferation of misinformation and explores 2 classes of technical solutions to address the dangers of unchecked misinformation proliferation and adoption. The first class we refer to as Information Flow Modeling (IFM), developing capabilities to model and visualize information pedigrees. Where did this information originate, what entities are pushing it, what entities believe it, what is the agenda of the source entities? The second class of technical solutions are job support and training systems for Critical Thinking (CT). We describe and demonstrate both classess of technical solutions.
Keywords
EDUCATION, HLA, HUMAN FACTORS, INFORMATION OPERATIONS, TRAINING
Additional Keywords
MISINFORMATION