Understanding and combatting misinformation across 16 countries on six continents

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Information Science
• Global Health

Background:

• Online misinformation, particularly regarding COVID-19, poses a significant global challenge.
• Understanding the psychological factors influencing susceptibility and effective interventions is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate predictors of susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation across diverse global populations.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at combating misinformation spread.

Main Methods:

• A large-scale experiment involving 34,286 participants across 16 countries and 6 continents.
• Analysis of cognitive styles, motivations, political values, and digital literacy in relation to misinformation discernment.
• Evaluation of interventions including accuracy prompts and digital literacy tips.

Main Results:

• Analytic cognitive style and accuracy motivation predicted better truth discernment globally.
• Valuing democracy correlated positively with truth discernment, while prioritizing individual responsibility correlated negatively.
• Accuracy prompts and digital literacy tips improved the veracity of shared news.
• The 'wisdom of crowds' effectively identified true from false headlines.

Conclusions:

• Psychological factors influencing misinformation susceptibility are consistent across diverse cultural settings.
• Targeted interventions, such as promoting analytic thinking and digital literacy, show broad effectiveness.
• Global collaboration is key to developing and implementing effective misinformation countermeasures.