Correction

There is, I am told, a saying in French to the effect of: "Prêcher le faux pour savoir le vrai," or "preach the falsehood to know the truth." Here in the United States, it's known as Cunningham's Law: "The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." And it's something that I've wondered about: Why are people more likely to ignore requests for information, but rush to correct things they consider wrong. One explanation is that people prefer feeling superior to being helpful. And I wouldn't be surprised to find that it is, at least in part, true.

But I think there is another piece to this particular puzzle. And that is the fact that ignorance lacks the perceived contagion that error carries. When a person who knows a fact encounters someone who doesn't know it, the knower's knowledge is safe; they're highly unlikely to forget what they knew simply from encountering someone who does not know it. Likewise, if a person who doesn't know something encounters someone else who lacks knowledge of the same thing, the status quo reigns. But someone who is wrong (or simply out of step with the mainstream) can convince other people that they are, in fact, correct; and this allows falsehood to displace not only ignorance, but knowledge. And I think that this is part of what motivates people to action when they encounter someone who is "wrong on the Internet;" the perceived threat that the person poses to truth, and perhaps thus to themselves.