Fake news has turned into a global phenomenon. Beyond its effects on communication and in the construction of an effective and diverse public opinion, it is interesting to see the psychological aspects behind fake news and how these affect each person.
The older you are, the more you trust… In fake news
The webinar comes to analyse how misinformation operates among different people of different ages and contexts. What is more interesting about the webinar is that, although all the participants are psychologists, they also point out the sociological aspects of this phenomenon, which allows us to have a more global perspective of how this problem can be seen in today’s society. One of the speakers, Nadia Brashier, assistant professor at the University of California, gives an interesting explanation about fake news related to age and the use of new technologies. She points out the problems that older people may have to identify fake news while using these technologies. However, that isn’t the most important or surprising aspect remarked by Brashier. In fact, what she really remarks is the fact that older people used to trust more in those fake contents than younger people (Brashier, 2020).
We could think that older people, as they are more reluctant to new technologies, would be those with less confidence regarding online content. So it is surprising the idea pointed out by Brashier when she says that older people are more likely to have fake news in their feed. Actually analysing what the speaker argues, it makes sense that tendency in older people. As followers of older people on social media platforms are used to being close friends, it’s more likely that they will never mistrust content published by their closest environment. It’s the reason why they usually don’t contrast the information they receive on their feed.
This problem becomes even worse when it’s turning into a common practice spreading myths on social media platforms. Ullrich K.H. Ecker uses as an example of this problem the way of the recently elected president of the United States, Donald Trump. The author explains how he uses typical or usual radical slogans or expressive language and sentences, without arguing his opinion, just by extending a myth continuously on social media platforms so that the myth can be shared by millions and millions of users to transform that myth into a “fact”. Ecker explains that the way Trump does that and succeeds without being caught telling lies is by introducing first the facts and data – data that has no context or reason to be presented, by the way – and then doing a very superficial analysis of the data presented and getting out with a very simple conclusion; it is in that moment when he introduces “the myth” (Ecker, 2018, 82-83).
Learning about psychology
Apart from that, the webinar is useful to have an approximation to the psychological aspects of fake online content, but not only that; it also allows one to have an overall view about some concepts. Those concepts for someone who hasn’t heard about them before may sound a bit strange, but the explanations given by Brashier, Briony Swire-Thompson and Gordon Pennycook help to understand all the information. The information is presented in an intuitive way. However, although the speakers were very good at explaining all the concepts in an understandable manner, it is also true that too much information was given, and maybe the way the webinar was presented and how the presenter introduces and asks all the speakers could be improved. In fact, the information given at the webinar could have been synthesised so that we could get all the information more easily.
References:
- Ecker, Ullrich K.H. 2018. “Why rebuttals may not work: the psychology of misinformation”. Media Asia, Vol. 44, No. 2, 79–8. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/01296612.2017.1384145?needAccess=true
- Hui Bai, Max and Statts, Sarah Jane. 2022. “You Know It’s Fake News; It Still Affects What You Believe.” Stanford University, Impact Labs. 30th June, 2022. https://impact.stanford.edu/article/you-know-its-fake-news-it-still-affects-what-you-believe
- Yuhas, Daisi. 2023. “The psychological vaccine against misinformation”. Scientific American. 13th March, 2023. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/theres-a-psychological-vaccine-against-misinformation/
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