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Fallibility Salience Increases Intellectual Humility: Implications for People's Willingness to Investigate Political
Jonah Koetke1, Karina Schumann1, Tenelle Porter2
1University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
|March 11, 2022
Summary
Investigative behaviors improve accuracy in discerning online political misinformation. Intellectual humility predicts these behaviors, and a novel manipulation can increase it, aiding democracy.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Political Science
- Communication Studies
Background:
- Online political misinformation poses significant risks to democratic societies.
- Misinformation erodes trust in political institutions and exacerbates polarization.
- Understanding how individuals process and verify online political information is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of investigative behaviors in combating political misinformation.
- To examine the relationship between intellectual humility and investigative behaviors.
- To test a manipulation designed to enhance intellectual humility and subsequent information verification.
Main Methods:
- Three preregistered studies involving 889 participants.
- Assessment of participants' accuracy in discerning political misinformation.
- Measurement of individual differences in intellectual humility.
- Experimental manipulation to increase awareness of personal fallibility.
Main Results:
- Investigative behaviors were found to significantly increase the accuracy of misinformation discernment.
- Intellectual humility emerged as a reliable predictor of engaging in investigative behaviors.
- The fallibility salience manipulation successfully increased intellectual humility.
Conclusions:
- Promoting investigative behaviors can enhance individuals' ability to identify political misinformation.
- Fostering intellectual humility is a promising avenue for encouraging such verification behaviors.
- Interventions targeting intellectual humility may mitigate the negative impacts of online political misinformation.
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