Shortly after Hurricane Helene devastated swaths of the U.S. Southeast in late September, conspiracy theories gained traction online that the extreme weather event was controlled by Democrats to keep Republicans in the red or swing states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina from voting in next week's presidential election.
The News Literacy Project (@newslitproject) shared a video about how the "baseless" election integrity claims have spread and why people are so eager to latch on to them.
@newslitproject Conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene are spreading online, pushing baseless theories about election integrity. Check where your information is coming from.
Examine the evidence for credibility.
Ask yourself: Does this information hold up to scrutiny, or is it just feeding my emotions? #HurricaneHelene #Misinformation #FactCheck #MediaLiteracy #CognitiveBias #NorthCarolina ♬ original sound - News Literacy Project
"Why do people believe this? Conspiracy theories about scary, out-of-our-control events provide simple explanations for why something horrible happened," the creator said. "They give people a sense of control, the feeling of being in the know. But, most importantly, they give people someone to blame."
The News Literacy Project recommended three ways to examine information or stories to uncover the truth: Evaluate the source, look to the evidence for credibility, and ask yourself whether the argument holds up to scrutiny or feeds your emotions.
This problem was in full flight after Hurricane Milton made landfall in the Sunshine State just 13 days later, as it strained believability that the events could be random. But, as the News Literacy Project noted, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina have been most hit by hurricanes for decades. Those states all have lengthy coastlines on the Gulf of Mexico and/or Atlantic Ocean, where warm water helps power hurricanes.
This year, even before hurricane season and as it was beginning, experts warned that record ocean and sea surface temperatures could cause an unusually active and dangerous storm cycle. The predictions came to fruition, and it only continued a trend.
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The warming planet is causing hurricanes to grow stronger and intensify faster, according to multiple science-backed sources, including the Environmental Defense Fund. Over the last century, the most damaging hurricanes in the United States have occurred three times more frequently; since 1980, the proportion of Category 3-5 storms in the Atlantic Ocean has doubled.
Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina especially hard, and the state's department of public health reported over 100 people died. The recovery effort is ongoing and will take months if not years.
"Conspiracy theories, especially about natural disasters, exploit our tendency toward motivated reasoning. This is when we only search for information that proves our belief right, like maps of election results, and we ignore anything that proves that belief wrong, like hundreds of past hurricanes," the creator said.
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