Background
Broad acceptance of misinformation has given rise to the notion of a “post-truth” world in which personal beliefs and appeals to emotion have more influence in shaping public opinion than objective facts. Adolescents may be particularly susceptible to misinformation online due to a) its proliferation via social media, b) the persuasive nature of video-mediated information which they tend to prefer, and c) their being relatively unequipped to discern between reliable and unreliable information. This age group requires special consideration also because they are at a crucial developmental stage during which lifelong habits of news engagement are formed.
Psychological Inoculation
Psychological inoculation theory makes an analogy to biological inoculation. Just as medical vaccines confer resistance to infection via exposure to attenuated strains of pathogens which prime an immune response to produce disease-attacking antibodies, psychological inoculation confers resistance to persuasion via exposure to an attenuated misinforming message which stimulates a cognitive response to produce message-attacking counterarguments. Contemporary inoculation interventions are digital technique-based inoculation interventions against misinformation (DTIIMs).
DTIIMs
DTIIMs are videos and browser-based games which aim to reduce susceptibility to misinformation by inoculating against persuasive techniques common to misinforming communications. DTIIMs show promise as fun, engaging interventions that lend themselves to the needs of adolescents. However, there is a live debate in the field regarding the efficacy of DTIIMs, and relatedly, which methodological and statistical techniques should be used to test them. Further, the mechanisms by which they are theorised to work remain almost entirely unexplored.
Scientific Relevance
This project will first clarify findings for the effects of DTIIMs (Phase A). One specific area of focus for Study 1, a systematic review, will be the strength of the logical links between tests and the theoretical framework from which hypotheses are derived. Another will concern the treatment of test-item effects and, relatedly, the ways in which misinformation susceptibility has been measured. These analyses will result in recommendations for future research in the field. A statistical approach recommended by Study 1 will then be applied in Study 2 to reanalysis of data from an influential study into inoculation videos. The findings from this phase will provide much needed clarity around efficacy of DTIIMs. Secondly, this project will empirically test if DTIIMs indeed inoculate against rhetorical techniques of persuasion, explore the role of the warning step, motivational threat and counterarguing in inoculation against misinformation, and consider adolescent samples (Phase B).
Societal Relevance
DTIIMs are broadly recommended for use in schools and have reached millions of people. They are promoted and used by the United Nations, the UK Cabinet Office, U.S government departments, Jigsaw Google, and other major organisations. However, researchers have concluded they make people more skeptical of information generally rather than better at discerning between reliable and unreliable information. Further, no research to date has addressed the efficacy of DTIIMs in adolescents. An apparent weakness of the interventions for adolescents is that they focus on text-based examples when adolescents predominantly engage with video-mediated (mis)information. This PhD-project will thus guide the assessment and design of the misinformation susceptibility interventions adolescents need. It will take steps toward a safe, effective, next generation of scalable interventions to address misinformation susceptibility in adolescents.