Investigate the source, off the page
Leave the site to learn about the site
Quick facts
- Technique
- Lateral reading
What happened
Open a new tab and search for the outlet or author instead of judging the page by its own design and About section. This is lateral reading. In Stanford's research, professional fact-checkers left a page almost immediately to see what the rest of the web said about it, while students and even scholars stayed on the page, judged it by its looks, and were misled.
Why it matters
A site controls everything it says about itself. It controls nothing about what Wikipedia, news coverage, and watchdogs say about it.
How we know
Stanford's 2016 Civic Online Reasoning study documented the gap between fact-checkers reading laterally and everyone else reading vertically. The technique is taught in Stanford's free curriculum.
Sources
- Sam Wineburg, Sarah McGrew, Joel Breakstone, Teresa Ortega. Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning (Stanford Digital Repository) (2016) · Peer-reviewed (author-declared)purl.stanford.edu · Cited as a "journal" source (no stronger domain match). · Link checked and content matched (Jul 2026)
- Stanford History Education Group. Civic Online Reasoning curriculum (Stanford) (2024) · Reputable sourcecor.stanford.edu · The domain "cor.stanford.edu" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link checked and content matched (Jul 2026)
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Part of a guideHow to Fact-Check a Claim You Read Online6 steps · Read like a professional fact-checker: four moves that catch most bad claims in under two minutes.View all →