Basic Science Test (BS Test) for Public Discourse
A free, six-question tool from the American Psychological Foundation designed to help you spot the signs of manipulation in what you see online.
You’re not imagining it
Most Americans say they regularly run into news they believe is inaccurate. In a 2025 Pew Research Center survey, 90% of U.S. adults said this happens to them at least sometimes, and 42% said it happens often or extremely often. Around the 2024 election, about half said they generally find it hard to tell what election news was true.
Much of it is deliberate. Researchers at Oxford documented organized social media manipulation campaigns in 81 countries. They’re run by governments, political parties and, more and more, private firms paid to spread disinformation.
90%
of U.S. adults say they run into news they believe is inaccurate at least sometimes
42%
of U.S. adults say they run into news they believe is inaccurate often or extremely often
Source: 2025 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults.
Why it works on smart, careful people
Your brain can’t carefully check everything it sees, so it relies on mental shortcuts. Most of the time those shortcuts serve us well, and manipulative content is built to exploit them. One of the best-documented: the more often we see a claim, the truer it feels, even when we already know it’s false.
Our identities play a role too. When a political group is part of who we are, information that challenges the group can feel like a personal threat. Being smart or well-educated doesn’t make anyone immune, and researchers are still debating whether sharper reasoning skills help us find the truth or mostly help us argue for our own side.
None of this is a character flaw. It’s how human minds work, which is why everyone benefits from a habit of checking.
What the BS Test does
The BS Test turns that habit into six quick questions. Each one targets a common technique:
Claims that only circulate among people who already agree
Numbers stripped of context
False either/or choices
Attacks on the messenger instead of the evidence
Manufactured urgency
Content designed to provoke a strong reaction before you’ve checked the facts
Answer Yes, Maybe or No for each one. You’ll get a Green, Yellow or Red Flag, along with the questions that raised concerns.
What it doesn’t do
The BS Test doesn’t fact-check for you, and a Red Flag doesn’t mean something is false.
The goal also isn’t to make you suspicious of everything. Some research on misinformation-spotting games has found they can make people more distrustful across the board without making them better at telling true from false. Other studies disagree, and that debate is ongoing. Either way, distrusting everything isn’t good judgment.
What the BS Test offers is a pause. Across 20 experiments, simply prompting people to think about accuracy made them about 10% less likely to say they would share false headlines. It’s not a cure, but it’s a research-supported place to start.
Built with psychological science
The BS Test was developed by the American Psychological Foundation as part of Reclaiming Shared Reality, our work on the psychological forces behind today’s divisions and what can help bring people back to common ground.
How it works
1
Pick one thing to check: a social media post, article, headline, video, ad or claim. It helps to have it in front of you.
2
Answer each question Yes, Maybe or No. Base your answer on the content and how you reacted to it, not on whether you agree with it.
3
Not sure? Choose Maybe. Hover over or tap the ⓘ next to any question for an explanation and an example.
4
Select “See my result” once all six are answered. You’ll get a Green, Yellow or Red Flag, plus a list of the questions that raised concerns.
A Yes is a warning sign, not proof that something is false. This tool helps you decide what to look into before you believe or share something. It doesn’t fact-check for you.
Sources: Pew Research Center (2024, 2025); Bradshaw, Bailey, & Howard (2021); Dechêne et al. (2010); Fazio et al. (2015); Kahan (2013); Pennycook & Rand (2022); Modirrousta-Galian & Higham (2023); Simchon et al. (2026).
Clear thinking is how we find common ground again.
Support the American Psychological Foundation’s work to help people tell evidence from manipulation.