Recently I saw a Facebook post rehashing the longstanding and debunked rumor that President Obama was born in Kenya.

The post showed a page from a publication listing the President’s birthplace as Kenya.

Also, to lend credibility to the claim, it said that Snopes confirmed the story as true. It even provided the link to Snopes.

I’ve often run across stories claiming to be verified by Snopes only to discover that Snopes actually categorized them as false. Many people simply accept the “verified by Snopes” statement as true.

But, that wasn’t the case here.

I clicked on the Snopes link, scrolled down, and saw the green “TRUE” designation.

I thought to myself, “What’s going on? That can’t be true.” So, I read further and the truth quickly came out.

The story itself was true. The publication did in fact print that President Obama was born in Kenya.

However, the rest of the article explained that everyone, including the publisher, acknowledged that it was an error.

The person who passed along the link in attempting to perpetuate the myth actually wound up provided compelling evidence against it. My guess is that this person never read beyond “True”.

Sadly, as our attention spans and ability to focus decrease, I see this type of mistake regularly.

We have all been conditioned to be “evidence-based”.

The problem is that most people don’t take the time to fully weigh or even understand their evidence.

They just grab a headline or out of context data point and present it. This is especially true when they are experiencing confirmation bias and the data supports whatever they want to believe.

If you are going to use a piece of evidence in your argument, take the time to understand it!

For example, instead of just rattling off a statistic or “finding” from a study that was referenced in an article or presentation, go read the original study! You may be surprised to learn that the person who quoted the study over generalized or misinterpreted the finding. Or, you may discover that the context in which the study was conducted was quite different from the context in which you are trying to apply the finding.

We’ve all played the telephone game. The further you get from an original source, the more likely the findings are distorted.

Facts without context are meaningless. Passing them along without their context is an irresponsible and dangerous decision-making practice.

If you don’t understand something, don’t say it. It’s that simple.

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Brad Kolar is an Executive Consultant, Speaker, and Thinking Coach with Avail Advisors. Avail can help you simplify and think critically about your data, decisions, and communication. Contact Brad at brad.kolar@availadvisors.com