The state of the modern information society can be defined as a period of post-truth, where facts and evidence are of much less value than the reactions they caused and especially the emotions of people. A modern person lives in the space of huge information flows, in which it is very difficult to navigate: to understand where is the truth, where is the lie, or partially represented reality. As a research task, the authors attempted to conduct a survey in three groups of respondents who are students of the Astrakhan State University in order to identify dubious information content. The purpose of the survey was to test the cognitive skills of young people, to establish the level of ability to identify questionable information content, the degree of proficiency in argumentation skills and the ability to see the missing elements in the logic of presenting information material. To do this, the authors of the article selected four types of fake information, gave their typological characteristics and proposed possible approaches to their exposure. An empirical analysis of the ability of students to analytically identify fake material showed an average and low level of application of the necessary analytical approaches. Checking the possibilities of analytical thinking of young people in working with fake material showed that the students of the first group, who became familiar with the basics of critical thinking, although not one hundred percent coped with the analysis of the proposed information material, nevertheless, stood out from other groups in the ability to think logically and apply analytical approaches that allow you to see the illogicality or inconsistency of the presentation of the analyzed information. Students of the second (humanitarian) group and the third (non-humanitarian) group differ little from each other in their unpreparedness to present arguments to the information proposed for analysis.

The state of the modern information society can be defined as a period of post-truth, where facts and evidence are of much less value than the reactions they caused and especially the emotions of people. A modern person lives in the space of huge information flows, in which it is very difficult to navigate: to understand where is the truth, where is the lie, or partially represented reality. As a research task, the authors attempted to conduct a survey in three groups of respondents who are students of the Astrakhan State University in order to identify dubious information content. The purpose of the survey was to test the cognitive skills of young people, to establish the level of ability to identify questionable information content, the degree of proficiency in argumentation skills and the ability to see the missing elements in the logic of presenting information material. To do this, the authors of the article selected four types of fake information, gave their typological characteristics and proposed possible approaches to their exposure. An empirical analysis of the ability of students to analytically identify fake material showed an average and low level of application of the necessary analytical approaches. Checking the possibilities of analytical thinking of young people in working with fake material showed that the students of the first group, who became familiar with the basics of critical thinking, although not one hundred percent coped with the analysis of the proposed information material, nevertheless, stood out from other groups in the ability to think logically and apply analytical approaches that allow you to see the illogicality or inconsistency of the presentation of the analyzed information. Students of the second (humanitarian) group and the third (non-humanitarian) group differ little from each other in their unpreparedness to present arguments to the information proposed for analysis.