Fact vs. Opinion Triage

Run this classification before doing any research or writing. It determines what kind of claim you're dealing with and which workflow is appropriate.

The Distinction

Use the standard from defamation law:

• A fact is a statement about something that objectively happened (or didn't happen) and can be proven true or false. Examples: "The venue held 4,500 people." "He said X in his speech." "The unemployment rate was 4.7%."
• An opinion is a subjective interpretation, prediction, or value judgment that cannot be definitively proven. Examples: "His clout is declining." "That policy will fail." "She's the best candidate."
• A characterization (or interpretive verb) sits somewhere between a fact and an opinion, but acts much more like an opinion. It compresses raw facts into a subjective judgment about how or why an action occurred. You must always unpack characterizations into their underlying mechanical facts before doing analysis.
  • Characterization: "He withheld the information." -> Raw Fact: "Investigators asked him for a list of people who knew. He provided an answer that omitted Name X."
  • Characterization: "She intimidated the witness." -> Raw Fact: "She stood up, walked across the room, and yelled at the witness."

How to Apply This

If you're running fact-check workflow:

• If the user gives you a fact, proceed normally.
• If the user gives you an opinion, STOP. Tell the user: "This is an opinion/interpretation, not a provable fact. Use credibility-check workflow instead to evaluate whether this opinion is well-supported."
• If the input is mixed (contains both facts and opinions), extract and fact-check only the factual components. Flag the opinion components and suggest credibility-check workflow for those.

If you're running find-evidence-packet-for-claims workflow:

• Extract only the facts from the document — statements that can be verified against a source.
• Skip pure opinions — do not try to find "evidence" for subjective judgments.
• The quoted-opinion rule: If the document says something like "Dr. Smith believes the earth is flat," the fact you are verifying is that Dr. Smith said those words — NOT whether the earth is flat. Find evidence that Dr. Smith actually made that statement (video, transcript, article quoting him). Do not evaluate the substance of the opinion itself.

If you're running credibility-check workflow:

• Confirm the input is an opinion or mixed claim. This is the correct workflow for it — proceed normally.
• If the user gives you a pure fact with no interpretive component, STOP. Tell the user: "This is a straightforward factual claim. Use fact-check workflow instead."