Objective Knowledge Mediates the Relationship between the Use of Social Media and COVID-19-Related False Memories

Abstract

The exposure to relevant social and/or historical events can increase the generation of false memories (FMs). The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a calamity challenging health, political, and journalistic bodies, with media generating confusion that has facilitated the spread of fake news. In this respect, our study aims at investigating the relationships between memories (true memories, TMs vs. FMs) for COVID-19-related news and different individual variables (i.e., use of traditional and social media, COVID-19 perceived and objective knowledge, fear of the disease, depression and anxiety symptoms, reasoning skills, and coping mechanisms). One hundred and seventy-one university students (131 females) were surveyed. Overall, our results suggested that depression and anxiety symptoms, reasoning skills, and coping mechanisms did not affect the formation of FMs. Conversely, the fear of loved ones contracting the infection was found to be negatively associated with FMs. This finding might be due to an empathy/prosociality-based positive bias boosting memory abilities, also explained by the young age of participants. Furthermore, objective knowledge (i) predicted an increase in TMs and decrease in FMs and (ii) significantly mediated the relationships between the use of social media and development of both TMs and FMs. In particular, higher levels of objective knowledge strengthened the formation of TMs and decreased the development of FMs following use of social media. These results may lead to reconsidering the idea of social media as the main source of fake news. This claim is further supported by either the lack of substantial differences between the use of traditional and social media among participants reporting FMs or the positive association between use of social media and levels of objective knowledge. The knowledge about the topic rather than the type of source would make a difference in the process of memory formation.

False memory and COVID-19: How people fall for fake news about COVID-19 in digital contexts

“…Moreover, in Experiment 2, lower analytic thinking predicted false memory formation. In line with Greene and Murphy (2020; but see Scuotto et al, 2021), this result suggests that while determining whether a true memory for an event is present, higher analytic thinking skills might protect individuals from reporting a false memory for a fabricated event. Thus, this finding further underlines the importance of critical thinking abilities in resisting fake news and misinformation (Pennycook and Rand, 2019;Greene and Murphy, 2020).…”

“…In Experiment 2, in accordance with prior studies showing that false memories creation is related to individual cognitive differences (e.g., Zhu et al, 2010;Battista et al, 2020;Scuotto et al, 2021), we hypothesised that a higher level of cognitive abilities and analytical thinking would be related to high rates of true memory, but not lower amount of false memory. Finally, we predicted that existing knowledge, self-interest, and conspiracy beliefs would be associated with an increased tendency to report both true and false memory.…”

“…Four out of the eight news stories were carefully fabricated. In line with the work conducted by Greene and Murphy (2020) , Scuotto et al (2021) found that participants correctly recalled more true than fake news stories, although about 19% of the entire sample remembered having seen/heard a COVID-19 fake event that has never took place. Furthermore, higher levels of objective knowledge, as well as a greater fear that loved ones would contract COVID-19, were associated with a decrease in false memories.…”

“…In both studies, we asked them whether they remembered having heard/seen those events. For both experiments, in line with previous work on fake news and false memory (Murphy et al, 2019;Greene and Murphy, 2020;Greene et al, 2021;Scuotto et al, 2021), we expected that a non-trivial percentage of participants (≈ 19-48%) would report a false memory for at least one COVID-19-related event that has never occurred. Furthermore, for Experiment 2, we predicted that participants believing in conspiracy theories would report more false memories with conspiratorial content than those who did not believe in conspiracy theories.…”

“…Additionally, Scuotto et al (2021) examined whether individuals variables (e.g., COVID-19 perceived and objective knowledge, fear of the disease) affected people’s COVID-19-related false memory creation. The authors showed an Italian sample of university students eight COVID-19-related news stories each accompanied by a picture.…”