Jasmijn Kruijt, Corine S. Meppelink, Lisa Vandeberg

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

Introduction

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. Study explores how critical thinking recommendations on social media reduce trust in fake Covid-19 news via improved truth discernment, offering a promising, low-cost intervention.

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.

Review

This study tackles a critical and timely issue: the pervasive spread of fake news, particularly concerning public health crises like Covid-19, and the associated challenges in critical information processing on social media. The authors investigate a straightforward, scalable intervention – critical thinking recommendations within a newsfeed – to enhance news truth discernment and reduce trust in misinformation. Employing an online experiment with 220 participants exposed to curated Twitter newsfeeds, the research design effectively compares conditions with and without these recommendations. The core finding, that recommendations lead to reduced trust in fake news mediated by improved discernment, offers a significant contribution to understanding practical interventions against online misinformation. The strengths of this research are notable. The intervention itself – a simple critical thinking recommendation – is highly practical, low-cost, and scalable, making its potential real-world impact substantial. This addresses a significant gap in the literature by testing a direct, user-facing solution rather than solely focusing on user characteristics or platform-level changes. The clear articulation of the research question (whether, how, and for whom) and the robust experimental design provide confidence in the reported findings regarding the mediation effect. The focus on a highly relevant context (Covid-19 news) further amplifies the immediate applicability and importance of the study's conclusions. While the study provides promising results, particularly the effectiveness of the critical thinking recommendations, the lack of significant moderating effects for information literacy and impulsivity warrants further exploration. This suggests that the intervention's benefits might be more universally applicable than initially hypothesized, or that the specific measures or participant pool did not adequately capture these moderating influences. Future research could delve deeper into the mechanisms of this universal effect or explore alternative individual difference variables that might modulate the intervention's impact. Overall, this is a well-designed and highly relevant study that offers a valuable, actionable insight into combating fake news, meriting publication.

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