Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Science -V- (Real) Fake News

Scientific American talks about some psychological studies relating to misinformation in the news:
Fake news can distort people’s beliefs even after being debunked. For example, repeated over and over, a story such as the one about the Pope endorsing Trump can create a glow around a political candidate that persists long after the story is exposed as fake. A study recently published in the journal Intelligence suggests that some people may have an especially difficult time rejecting misinformation. Asked to rate a fictitious person on a range of character traits, people who scored low on a test of cognitive ability continued to be influenced by damaging information about the person even after they were explicitly told the information was false. The study is significant because it identifies what may be a major risk factor for vulnerability to fake news.
I guess that conclusion is not that surprising, but I hope it's not one of those psychological studies that later is discredited.  

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