Stop and Think! Exploring the Role of News Truth Discernment, Information Literacy, and Impulsivity in the Effect of Critical Thinking Recommendations on Trust in Fake Covid-19 News

Abstract

Covid-19-related fake news widely circulates on social media. This is problematic as people commonly do not process information on social media in a very critical manner. Also, when people encounter particular online content several times this tends to increase the content’s trustworthiness, sometimes irrespective of the accuracy of the provided information. Our study aims to explore whether, how, and for whom a simple critical thinking recommendation added to a social media newsfeed can aid people to better discern true news from fake news and reduce their trust in fake news. In an online experiment, 220 participants were exposed to a Twitter newsfeed with true and fake Covid-19-related news messages, either with or without critical thinking recommendations. The findings showed that participants who were exposed to the recommendations showed less trust in fake news messages, which was mediated by an increased accuracy in news truth discernment. Results showed no significant moderating effects of information literacy and impulsivity characteristics. Overall, the findings of this study are promising as this scalable, low-cost intervention might potentially help combat the effects of fake news on social media.

Could Belief in Fake News Predict Vaccination Behavior in the Elderly?

“…It also could be that discernment cannot directly predict vaccination behavior. It was found that discernment affects the trust of belief in the news [ 55 ], and trust could be related to vaccination behavior, as our data support. Thus, the mediation or moderation effects should be considered aside from testing the direct effects.…”

“…Thus, some potential participants could not reach this study during the pandemic. From previous studies, we know that discernment is related to previous knowledge [ 38 ], cognitive functioning [ 38 ], digital literacy [ 55 ], and personality traits [ 58 ]. In this study, we did not control for any of these factors, which could affect the discernment, beliefs or attitudes, and even vaccination behavior.…”

Mis- and Disinformation About Covid-19

“…Leuker et al (2022) revealed that only about half of respondents used strategies to discern between true and false information. Kruijt et al (2022) revealed that the use of such strategies can indeed make a difference. Similar to research on accuracy nudges (Pennycook et al, 2020), Kruijt et al (2022) explored whether a simple critical thinking recommendation added to a social media newsfeed could aid people in better discerning true news from false and reducing their trust in misinformation.…”

“…Kruijt et al (2022) revealed that the use of such strategies can indeed make a difference. Similar to research on accuracy nudges (Pennycook et al, 2020), Kruijt et al (2022) explored whether a simple critical thinking recommendation added to a social media newsfeed could aid people in better discerning true news from false and reducing their trust in misinformation. Their online experiment among Dutch-speaking participants showed that those who were exposed to the critical thinking recommendations showed less trust in misinforming messages compared to a control condition.…”

“…et al (2022) conducted three online experiments among German participants and examined the impact of vaccine type, misinformation debunking, and critical events during vaccine trials on confidence in Covid-19 vaccine safety, vaccination intention, and willingness to participate in a vaccine trial. Among other things, they showed that debunking increased vaccination intention and confidence in vaccine safety.Together, the studies byKruijt et al (2022),Pummerer et al (2022), andMemenga et al (2022) tested a variety of effective interventions to counter health mis-and disinformation in European contexts -from pausing to think critically, providing detailed and transparent information before individuals encounter misinformation, to detailed debunking.…”