3 Ps CLARITY METHOD — How Did They Come to Know That?

Learn one simple question for tracing information, judging confidence, and deciding when you know enough to act.

Resources for this Episode

How do we decide how much confidence to place in something someone tells us?

Information rarely travels directly from reality to us. It passes through people — people who observe, interpret, specialize, summarize, and sometimes rely on others themselves. In this episode, we explore those hidden information chains and one simple question that can help us understand them: “How did this person come to know that?”

Using the 3 Ps Clarity Method — Pause, Pinpoint Truth, and Proceed with Purposeful Forethought — we’ll look at how to notice our first reactions, distinguish what someone observed from what they received or interpreted, decide how far an information chain needs to be traced, and recognize when we know enough to take the next responsible step.

☝️ Here’s the Truth Check:
Confidence tells us very little by itself. What matters more is understanding how that confidence was built.

🎯 What this episode covers:

• Why information usually reaches us through other people

• How observation, received information, and interpretation differ

• Why expertise can change what different people notice

• How leaders depend on longer information chains

• How to decide how far a claim needs to be traced

• How to move forward without waiting for perfect certainty

💬 Join the Conversation 💬

Has asking, “How did they come to know that?” ever changed how you thought about something someone told you?

What happened?

I’d love to hear your experience.

Join the conversation on the American Together YouTube channel under How Did They Come to Know That? | American Together video, or in our upcoming community space (coming soon).

🛠 3 Ps in Action: Comment Edition 🛠
Need a little extra help shaping your reply? This quick guide uses the same 3 Ps process I use myself: Pause, Pinpoint Truth, Proceed with Purposeful Forethought.‍ ‍

🧭 Practice Challenge 🧭

This week, pick one claim that matters to you.

Before accepting it — or rejecting it — spend just one minute asking:

“How did this person come to know this?”

Pay attention to what you discover about where the information came from and how much confidence you should place in it.

You may discover one question is all you needed.

🔎Full Sources & Further Reading🔎

• Episode Sources (clickable)

  1. U.S. Food & Drug Administration. (n.d.). FDA Pharmacists Help You Use Medicines Safely. (fda.gov)

  2. U.S. Food & Drug Administration. (n.d.). Stop, Learn, Go: Tips for Talking with Your Pharmacist. (fda.gov)

  3. Grundy, S. M., Stone, N. J., Bailey, A. L., et al. (2019). 2018 AHA/ACC/AACVPR/AAPA/ABC/ACPM/ADA/AGS/APhA/ASPC/NLA/PCNA Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol.Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (jacc.org)

  4. U.S. Food & Drug Administration. (n.d.). Cholesterol Medicines Guide.(fda.gov)

• Further Resources (clickable)

  1. News Literacy Project — Free lessons and tools that help people of all ages spot misinformation and verify sources.

  2. Media Bias/Fact Check — Outlet database with bias and factual-reporting ratings; use it to compare perspectives, not crown one “right.”

  3. Stanford History Education Group – Civic Online Reasoning — Research-based digital-literacy lessons on evaluating online information.

  4. American Psychological Association – Psychology topics — Hub of readable articles on cognition, reasoning, misinformation, social media, and more.

  5. Braver Angels — Workshops, debates, and community programs that help Americans communicate across political and ideological differences.

🔗 Continue the Journey 🔗

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