🌱 The Psychology of Misinformation

Increase belief

repeating a falsehood makes it more believable for everyone (doesn’t matter if you know its false or not)

consistency increases belief (makes it hard to accept things that are outside what you already know)

information comes trusted sources

increase belief in falsehoods

lack of critical thinking

distraction

relying on emotion

lack of knowledge on digital media

what can be done

corrections and warnings work

people don’t want to share mis information

use wisdom of crowds to approximate experts to scale and down rank content and add warnings

social media is distracting so critical thinking and accuracy are forgotten

Increase exposure to accurate and corrective information.