How do you decide whether a website is trustworthy? Most of us do what we were taught at school: read it carefully, look at the design, check the "About" page, see whether it cites sources. It feels thorough. Research suggests it is often the wrong approach.

The Stanford experiment

Sam Wineburg and Sarah McGrew of the Stanford History Education Group asked three groups to evaluate unfamiliar websites and social media posts: historians with doctorates, Stanford undergraduates, and professional fact-checkers from major news organisations. All three groups were intelligent and experienced readers.

The fact-checkers consistently reached more accurate conclusions, and did it faster. The difference was not how carefully they read. It was where they read.

Reading vertically versus laterally

Historians and students read vertically: they stayed on the page, scrolled down, studied the content and the design. A polished site with official-sounding language and references often convinced them.

Fact-checkers read laterally: within seconds they opened new tabs and searched for the organisation behind the site. What do other sources say about it? Who funds it? Is it known for a particular agenda? They learned more about a page by leaving it than by staying.

Why vertical reading fails

A website controls everything on its own pages. It can choose a neutral name, a professional design and a reassuring mission statement. What it cannot control is what independent sources say about it. Lateral reading uses that asymmetry.

How to read laterally

  • Leave early. Before investing time in the argument, open a new tab.
  • Search the source, not the claim. Type the organisation's name and look at what encyclopaedias, news outlets and watchdogs say.
  • Use click restraint. Do not click the first search result automatically; scan the results page to see which sources are worth opening.
  • Come back informed. Now read the original page, knowing who is speaking.

Where Honest News fits

Lateral reading is also the principle behind the Honest News engine. It does not judge a claim only from the text you paste; it gathers outside context, from Wikipedia search and from the sources it cites, and then checks whether those sources exist and resolve. The live progress panel shows which outside pages were consulted.

Source: Wineburg, S., & McGrew, S. (2019). Lateral reading and the nature of expertise: Reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information. Teachers College Record, 121(11).