Elenchus – a Research Tool for Public Discourse

For anyone curious, the dashboard is one of the bigger pieces I’ve worked on, you can • Revisit saved research sessions • View bias/integrity metrics as charts • See Wikipedia extracts you’ve saved inline with your articles • Track how your perspective has (or hasn’t) shifted over time

I started building this two years ago as my first serious project, after realizing how easy it is to search for whatever confirms your own bias. I was guilty of those endless comment-section battles that go nowhere.

The idea came after seeing a teacher use the Socratic method to break through students’ preconceived notions before discussing contentious topics. That inspired the name: Elenchus, the word Socrates used for his method of questioning.

The problem: when we see a claim on social media or in passing, we usually seek out evidence that supports what we already believe.

How Elenchus works:

Before searching, you’re guided through a few questions to clarify the claim, your perspective, and potential biases.

The search function only pulls from news sources, with each article rated for source bias and journalistic integrity.

While reading, you can take notes or highlight terms to instantly pull a Wikipedia extract (so you don’t context-switch).

At the end, you see your original perspective alongside an option to note if the information changed your view.

The goal is to make it harder to slip into confirmation bias and easier to reflect on how evidence actually affects your beliefs.