Misinformed and unaware? Metacognition and the influence of inaccurate information.

Abstract

The current study investigated the role of metacognition with respect to the consequences of exposures to inaccurate information. Previous work has consistently demonstrated that exposures to inaccuracies can confuse people and even encourage reliance on the falsehoods. We specifically examined whether people are aware of their likelihood of being influenced by inaccurate information, and whether engaging in metacognitive reflection is effective at reducing this influence. In three experiments, participants read a story containing false assertions about the world. In Experiment 1, we compared participants’ estimated resistance to inaccurate information against the degree to which their subsequent judgments actually reflected an influence of previously read inaccuracies. Participants were generally unaware of their susceptibility to inaccurate information, demonstrated by a lack of calibration between estimated and actual resistance. Their judgments consistently revealed an influence of previously read inaccuracies. In Experiment 2, we applied a metacognitive reflection task intended to encourage evaluation while reading. Participants who completed this task made fewer judgment errors after having read inaccurate statements than did participants who did not engage in reflection. Experiment 3 replicated these effects with a larger sample, and showed benefits of reflection for calibrations between people’s estimated resistance and their actual performance. The accumulated findings highlight the importance of metacognitive considerations for understanding and addressing oft-reported, problematic effects of exposures to inaccuracies.

The Psychology of Fake News

“…Furthermore, the tendency to engage in analytic thinking predicts the ability to distinguish between true and false news content [18] and that reliance on emotion [78] and intuition [32] increases belief in fake news (see also; [78]). Relatedly, there is evidence that metacognitive promptsprobing questions that have people reflectincreases resistance to inaccurate information [121]. This work suggests that interventions aimed at getting people to slow down and reflect about the accuracy of what they see on social media may be effective in slowing the spread of misinformation.…”

Can confidence help account for and redress the effects of reading inaccurate information?

“…For example, recent work has demonstrated the utility of metacognitive prompts for helping people calibrate their perceived and actual resistance to inaccurate information. Salovich and Rapp (2020) reported that while people are generally unaware of their susceptibility to inaccurate information, prompting them to consider recent use of inaccurate information outside of the lab setting increased awareness and reduced their reliance on false assertions. More direct instructions or suggestions to consider the consequences of one's confidence may encourage more effective judgments (Horry et al, 2014).…”

The Psychology of Fake News

“…Furthermore, survey experiments have shown that asking participants to explain how they know whether a headline is true or false before sharing it increases sharing discernment [105], and having participants rate accuracy at the time of encoding protects against familiarity effects [106]. Relatedly, metacognitive promptsprobing questions that make people reflectincreases resistance to inaccurate information [107].…”