What is the difference between ‘misbelief’ and ‘disbelief’?
Misbelief means a wrong or faulty belief as in the following examples:
* Snake means death! It is amazing to find foolish and utterly absurd misbeliefs like this and many more about this misjudged creature.
* It is a common misbelief that men cannot get yeast infection.
Another word for misbelieve is
delusion.
Disbelief means refusal to accept something as true as in the following examples:
* My son was in disbelief when he found out that our dog ran away.
* I was in disbelief when I heard that Ireland defeated England in the World Cup Cricket qualifying match.
Disbelief also means amazement and astonishment. Look at the following examples:
* Express Avenue is the best shopping mall in India. Every visitor stared at the magnificent building in disbelief.
* What a wonderful architecture! I looked at the Gothic cathedral in disbelief.
Misinformation and Disinformation
‘Misinformation’ is inaccurate information that is spread unintentionally whereas ‘disinformation’ is inaccurate information that is spread intentionally to mislead people. This distinction can be illustrated with the following example.
Assume that there was a clash between a group of Hindus and a group of Muslims and 13 people (seven Hindus and six Muslims) were killed.
Information: Thirteen people were killed in a clash.
Misinformation: Thirty people were killed in a clash (The information is inaccurate because the reporter unintentionally mentioned the figure as thirty because she heard the number ‘thirteen’ mispronounced as ‘thirty’ by an eye witness).
Disinformation: Thirty Muslims were massacred by a Hindu mob (this inaccurate info is intentionally spread by someone to mislead people and instigate violence).
The lowest form of popular culture — lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives has overrun real journalism — Carl Bernstein.
—rayanal@yahoo.co.uk