Judging health information you find online
Tell a trustworthy health page from a persuasive one in under a minute.
Ask who wrote it, who pays for it, and what it wants you to do next.
Search results mix three things: paid placements marked sponsored, ordinary pages, and an assistant summary at the top. The summary is generated software. It is often useful and sometimes confidently wrong.
A page that helps you names its author, dates the review, cites where the claim comes from, and describes uncertainty honestly. It is fine with you leaving to ask your doctor.
A page that sells you tells stories instead of numbers, promises what medicine cannot, and steers you toward a purchase or an email signup.
Two habits do most of the work. Read the About page. Then look for the same claim on a second, unrelated site before you believe it.
Key points
- Ask who wrote it and who profits from it.
- Sponsored results are advertisements, however they look.
- Assistant summaries are software and can be wrong.
- Look for a named author and a review date.
- Confirm on a second unrelated site.
What to remember
- The About page answers the question the headline is avoiding.
- Summaries are a starting point for questions, never a source for doses.
- Stories plus a buy button is the oldest pattern in health selling.
Try this
Search a health question you actually have, open the first non sponsored result, and find its author and review date before reading further.
Practice: Judging health information you find online. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.