Fact or Fiction

### Cold Open

"In our ever divisive 24-hour news cycle, it's never been more difficult to tell fact from fiction. How do we keep these clever brains of ours from being so easily fooled?"

### Game #1: The Blue Man Group

Pay attention to the blue man group as they do some rather.... unorthodox things. Then pick the fact from fiction.

Result: More people in the audience pick Jason, but let's separate by side of the audience. The side that chose it was presented in the clearer font to that side.

Why: Cognitive Ease, which means if something is easier to read, it's easier to believe it's true.

### Experiment: Brain Games News

Pick the facts which are true, and which are false? Pick the ones you think are true.

Result: The most believed story was glow in the dark corn, but that's false. The goat elected mayor, 60%, was true.

### Game #2: Goal of Advertising

With color psychology, advertisers can achieve their goal. Color can be 90% responsible about judgement. Which sign is best for this logo?

Result: The second one.

Why: Because the colors effect our hypothalamus, and associates red with energy and excitement.

#### Stage Mini-Game: Hide the Quarter

Ted Danson hides a quarter, and must say no to all of Lior's questions. Then, Keegan joins in to make the game harder.

Result: Easy peasy for Lior.

### Game #3: Prince William

What is Prince William doing?

Result: It's a very misleading picture.

So: Don't always believe your eyes.

### Experiment: Poker Up

Micro-expressions can express emotions quickly, but they're almost impossible to control. Can Keegan and Ted read the poker player's micro expressions?

Result: It's a tie.

Now, it's actor to actor.

### Game #4: Looking at You

Is there more to this picture than meets the eye?

Result: There's more than meets the eye.

#### Stage Mini-Game: Lior's Lie Detector

Lior and Keegan will be blindfoled. Ted will take Keegan's watch to someone in the audience. Lior will try to find it by looking at the audience and seeing if they're lying.

Result: Lior is able to find Keegan's watch.

### Game #5: The Grid

Do you see the black circles in intersecting white lines? Look directly now.

Result: You can see without direct eye contact.

Why: Because of the fact lateral inhibition, how cells in our retina respond to color stimuli. When we're not looking at directly at the same intersection, they change from white to black.

#### Memory Test:

What were the items we remembered from the blue man group performance?

Result: There was never a guy in the tiger suit.

So: You only remembered it because Keegan mentioned it so many times.

### Experiment: Brain Games News: Version 2

Just like last time, pick the facts from the fiction. Information that's repeated more than once is easier for our brains to process. The more times we hear something, the quicker we can process it. When our brain says we heard something before, we neglect the knowledge and just accept what's easiest to believe.

Result: 61% think the 50 cent island is true, which is false. There are more tattoo parlors than Starbucks. The number who believed there were 12 Mary's, doubled because you saw it before.

So: You saw the Illusory truth effect in action

### Game #6: Word Spam

Memorize the words you saw. Which words did you see as more words appear. Which words was on both lists?

Result: One of the words on the second list was associated with the words on the first list, which is the reason you remember it.

So: It is impossible for your brain to perfectly reconstruct a memory, your brain tries to piece something together.

### Game #7: Headline Time

Which headline is accurate?

Result: You probably picked one with a photo even though the information is misleading, it seems more legit with the photo.

Why: Heruistics relieve our brains of extra work, and interprets some of it as more true than others. The second headline is true.

### Gauntlet

#### Composure

Will Ted Crack?

Result: No, he doesn't!

## List of Experts/Guests

* Ted Danson
* Alec Torelli
* Liv Boeree
* Igor Kurganov
* Wayne Chiang