Combatting climate change misinformation: Evidence for longevity of inoculation and consensus messaging effects

Maertens, Rakoen; Anseel, Frederik; Linden, Sander van der

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101455

Cited by 99 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Specifically, estimates of the scientific consensus were associated with acceptance of climate change six months later, with the reverse association being weaker (159). In an experimental context, consensus messaging has also had a relatively long-lasting effect (119).…”

Section: Consensus Messagingmentioning

confidence: 92%

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Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It

Lewandowsky

2021

Annu. Rev. Public Health

188

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Climate change presents a challenge at multiple levels: It challenges our cognitive abilities because the effect of the accumulation of emissions is difficult to understand. Climate change also challenges many people's worldview because any climate mitigation regime will have economic and political implications that are incompatible with libertarian ideals of unregulated free markets. These political implications have created an environment of rhetorical adversity in which disinformation abounds, thus compounding the challenges for climate communicators. The existing literature on how to communicate climate change and dispel misinformation converges on several conclusions: First, providing information about climate change, in particular explanations of why it occurs, can enhance people's acceptance of science. Second, highlighting the scientific consensus can be an effective means to counter misinformation and raise public acceptance. Third, culturally aligned messages and messengers are more likely to be successful. Finally, climate misinformation is best defanged, through a process known as inoculation, before it is encountered, although debunking techniques can also be successful. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 42 is April 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Section: Consensus Messagingmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of inoculation against climate change disinformation (163,169). In one preregistered study, the inoculation effect was shown to be stable over a week-long delay (119).…”

Section: Countering Disinformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It

Lewandowsky

2021

Annu. Rev. Public Health

188

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“…For example, in a study on misinformation about climate change, participants were (a) forewarned that some political actors try to mislead people on the issue and (b) provided with facts and arguments to refute the misinformation-preemptively-that is, before they were exposed to a full dose of misinformation later on (van der Linden et al, 2017). The study found that the inoculation partially immunized people against climate misinformation (see also Maertens et al, 2020a).…”

Section: Inoculation Theorymentioning

confidence: 98%

Inoculating Against Fake News About COVID-19

2020

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The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been accompanied by a large amount of misleading and false information about the virus, especially on social media. In this article, we explore the coronavirus "infodemic" and how behavioral scientists may seek to address this problem. We detail the scope of the problem and discuss the negative influence that COVID-19 misinformation can have on the widespread adoption of health protective behaviors in the population. In response, we explore how insights from the behavioral sciences can be leveraged to manage an effective societal response to curb the spread of misinformation about the virus. In particular, we discuss the theory of psychological inoculation (or prebunking) as an efficient vehicle for conferring large-scale psychological resistance against fake news.

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“…Evidence from studies comparing interventions indicates that expiration rates may vary depending on the method, with inoculation-based effects generally staying intact for longer than narrative, supportive, or consensusmessaging effects (e.g., see Banas & Rains, 2010;Compton & Pfau, 2005;Maertens, Anseel, et al, 2020;Niederdeppe et al, 2015;Pfau et al, 1992). Although some studies have found inoculation effects to decay after two weeks (Compton, 2013;Pfau et al, 2009;Zerback et al, 2020), the literature is converging on an average inoculation effect that lasts for at least two weeks but largely dissipates within six weeks (Ivanov et al, 2018;Maertens, Roozenbeek, et al, 2020).…”

Section: The Longevity Of Intervention Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Psychological Science Help Counter the Spread of Fake News?

et al. 2021

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In recent years, interest in the psychology of fake news has rapidly increased. We outline the various interventions within psychological science aimed at countering the spread of fake news and misinformation online, focusing primarily on corrective (debunking) and pre-emptive (prebunking) approaches. We also offer a research agenda of open questions within the field of psychological science that relate to how and why fake news spreads and how best to counter it: the longevity of intervention effectiveness; the role of sources and source credibility; whether the sharing of fake news is best explained by the motivated cognition or the inattention accounts; and the complexities of developing psychometrically validated instruments to measure how interventions affect susceptibility to fake news at the individual level.

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Combatting climate change misinformation: Evidence for longevity of inoculation and consensus messaging effects

Cited by 99 publications

References 58 publications

Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It

Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It

Inoculating Against Fake News About COVID-19

How Can Psychological Science Help Counter the Spread of Fake News?

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