 How do you bust a myth? The key to debunking myths doesn't come from the mythbusters, sadly. Instead, the answer comes from psychology. Scientists have been researching the psychology of debunking for many years, exploring how to effectively respond to misinformation. They've identified the key elements to an effective debunking. And sorry to the mythbusters fans, but it doesn't include blowing stuff up. A debunking has to present both the correction information and explain why the misinformation is incorrect. But you also need to be careful not to give the myth too much attention. Unfortunately, most of the time you see a debunking, the emphasis is on the myth. Here's an example from the Skeptical Science website in 2007 where the myth gets prime prominence. The risk with this type of format is you can end up reinforcing the myth rather than refuting it. To avoid this problem, the psychological research points to a specific structure to debunk myths, fact, myth, fallacy. You want people to remember your facts, not the myth. So an effective debunking emphasizes that key fact you want to communicate. While you don't want to put too much emphasis on the myth, you still do need to mention it. To avoid reinforcing the myth, warn people before you mention it. This puts people on guard so they're less likely to be influenced by the myth. Now, when you present a fact and a myth about that fact, you're presenting two conflicting pieces of information. You help people reconcile that conflict by explaining the fallacy that the myth uses to distort the science. A useful framework for explaining the fallacies commonly seen in climate misinformation is the five characteristics of science denial summarized with the acronym FLIP. This stands for fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry picking, and conspiracy theories. Throughout our Denial 101x course, we debunk many of the most common myths that cast out on whether global warming is happening, humanities rolling causing climate change, and the impacts of global warming. You'll see the fact and myth fallacy structure as we explain the science, then examine how that science can get distorted. Each week we'll also release a short summary listing the fact, myth, and fallacy of each debunking. At the end of Denial 101x, we'll dive deeper into the psychological research on debunking. Can you change the mind of someone who rejects climate science? What is the most effective response to climate science denial? But for the moment, you now know about the fact, myth, fallacy structure. Look for it in the rest of our course.