Research Prompts
Fact-Check a Claim
Analyze a specific claim for verifiability, identify what evidence would confirm or refute it.
Prompt
I want to rigorously evaluate the following claim:
**Claim:** [CLAIM_TO_CHECK]
Please analyze this claim across the following dimensions:
1. **Type of claim** — categorize this as one or more of:
- Empirical (testable with data or observation)
- Normative (a value judgment about what should be)
- Definitional (depends on how a term is defined)
- Predictive (about future events)
- Causal (asserts X causes Y)
2. **What would confirm it** — list 3-5 specific pieces of evidence, data, or sources that, if found, would strongly support the claim.
3. **What would refute it** — list 3-5 specific pieces of evidence, data, or sources that, if found, would strongly undermine the claim.
4. **What you would need to verify** — concrete steps a fact-checker would take: what databases, government agencies, peer-reviewed sources, or primary documents should be consulted?
5. **Ways this claim could mislead even if partially true** — identify potential issues such as: cherry-picked data, misleading denominator, conflation of correlation and causation, outdated statistics, definitional tricks, or missing context.
6. **Red flags in framing** — does the language used to state the claim contain loaded words, absolute quantifiers ("always", "never", "all"), or rhetorical techniques that should prompt skepticism?
How to Use
Paste the exact claim as it was stated — including the original wording — into [CLAIM_TO_CHECK]. Preserving the original wording matters because framing analysis in section 6 depends on it. This prompt does not browse the internet; it gives you a structured verification framework you then use to do your own research.
Variables
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| [CLAIM_TO_CHECK] | The specific claim, statistic, or assertion you want to evaluate — use the original wording |
Tips
- This prompt is most powerful for empirical and causal claims — for pure opinion or value judgments, focus on sections 1 and 6.
- After running this prompt, use the "What you would need to verify" output as a checklist and look up each source before reaching a conclusion.