Why do we always fall for the lies of the 'sickfluencers'?

Tim Robinson on Bad Nanny

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The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it, goes the saying. No, it's not from Donald Trump or Fox News but first appeared as a phrase in Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, published 100 years ago.

In the 'Age of Lies' we live in, it's an apt summary. Conspiracy theories used to be the preserve of nutters, now they are beliefs held by the mainstream.

Liars and fraudsters thrive in so many areas of our thoughts because they know what we want - we want to believe, even if something isn't true.

And we're all susceptible to it, searching for information that supports the beliefs we already hold; it's called confirmation bias.

There have always been charlatans and conmen of course selling miracle cures and get-rich-quick schemes.

What's different now of course is the handheld device people look at hundreds of times each day, habitually pumping information into their heads from God knows where.

The internet promised us all the knowledge in the world and somehow we ended up with TikTok.

There is even a word for people who use TikTok and other social media platforms to seek attention for their diseases, real or imaginary: 'sickfluencers'.