Relation

Summary of Pennycook et al. COVID-19 Misinformation Study

  • Individuals are less discerning when not prompted to consider accuracy before sharing a headline.
  • Those with lower baseline scientific knowledge and those who relied more on intuition were less discerning.
  • A minimal, neutral nudge to consider accuracy caused people to be 3x more discerning.
  • The results of this study support the inattention-based account of misinformation spreading.
  • By using apolitical COVID-19 headlines, the researchers were able to determine that partisanship was not the key distractor.

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Updated 2021-12-10

Tags

Psychology

Social Science

Empirical Science

Science