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Children's susceptibility to online misinformation.
1Department of Psychology, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA.
Current Opinion in Psychology
|December 3, 2023
Summary
Children can spot fake news, but their skepticism is shallow. Professional-looking online misinformation, like fake news sites, can easily fool kids due to superficial evaluation strategies.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Media Literacy
- Information Science
Background:
- Children are often perceived as overly credulous.
- Preschoolers demonstrate an ability to identify implausible claims and unreliable sources.
- Superficial skepticism leaves children vulnerable to misinformation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate children's ability to discern credible information online.
- To understand the limitations of children's skepticism towards digital misinformation.
- To examine factors that make children susceptible to deceptive online content.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of children's evaluation strategies for online information.
- Assessment of susceptibility to professionally formatted misinformation.
- Examination of age-related differences in identifying legitimate vs. illegitimate sources.
Main Results:
- Children, including preschoolers, can identify some unreliable information.
- Superficial skepticism is common, making children vulnerable.
- Professional features (graphs, statistics, layout) on fake news sites mislead children of all ages.
- Children struggle to differentiate legitimate and illegitimate online news sources.
Conclusions:
- Children are not inherently credulous but possess shallow skepticism.
- Deceptive formatting of online misinformation can override children's critical evaluation skills.
- Enhanced media literacy education is crucial to help children navigate the digital information landscape.
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