From: Pacific Standard
THE TRICK TO DEBUNKING FAKE NEWS
Pacific Standard:
The ultimate weapon against such disinformation would be a less credulous public. But given our tendency to believe “facts” that confirm our biases—and for startling but unverified assertions to stick in our brains—is that really possible? Can fake news be successfully debunked?
Just-published research offers no panacea, but it does provide some concrete suggestions.
“The effect of misinformation is very strong,” said co-author Dolores Albarracin, a psychologist at the University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign. “Generally, some degree of correction is possible, but it’s very difficult to completely correct.”
The researchers, led by Man-pui Sally Chan, gathered data from 20 experiments described in eight research reports published between 1994 and 2015.
Read the whole story: Pacific Standard
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Comments
The Pacific Standard article is nothing short of silly. I hope it didn’t do justice to the actual research.
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