A good place to start is to be particularly critical of sources that support your beliefs. "I'm always the most suspicious of beliefs that I have or conclusions that I come to that are in line with my own ideology," Novella explained. "So if I have a particular worldview and something supports my worldview, then I have to be especially suspicious of it. Because that's when I'm going to be most vulnerable. That's when my motivated reasoning and confirmation bias are going to try hard to engage ... but that's exactly when you should question it the most. It's a high-energy state, and it takes a lot of vigilance and a lot of practice and a lot of dedication. It's a life-long practice, and there's no shortcut to that. You just have to really be dedicated to policing your own thinking."

In short: don't believe everything you read ... except for this article, of course!

You can hear our full conversation with Steven Novella on the Curiosity Podcast. Stream or download the episode using the player below, or find it everyone podcasts are found, including iTunes, Stitcher, and Gretta.