Need for cognition and discrepancy detection in the misinformation effect

When does imagery rescripting become a double-edged sword? - Investigating the risk of memory distortion through imagery rescripting in an online Trauma film study

Imagery Rescripting (ImRs) has proven effective in reducing involuntary emotional memories. However, it is unclear whether and when it may lead to reduced accuracy of voluntary memory. Although previous analogue studies suggest that ImRs does not pose a general risk regarding memory distortion, it can not be ruled out that ImRs could cause memory impairment under certain risk conditions. In our three-day online trauma film study we investigated in a healthy sample (N = 267) whether specific instructions during ImRs as typically provided in clinical practice (i.e., detailed imagery with a sensory focus) increase the risk of memory distortions. Additionally, we examined whether the completeness of the original memory moderates these instruction effects. Contrary to our expectations, a sensory focus during ImRs was associated with higher memory accuracy in a recognition task, independently of the quality of the original memory. These results extend previous findings by suggesting that ImRs does not even impair memory performance when the quality of the original memory is poor and when the production of sensory-rich images is specifically encouraged. Our results question current practices employed to assess witness statement credibility, which are partly based on concerns that trauma-focused interventions like ImRs undermine memory accuracy.

"I Know News Will Find Me": Examining the Relationship Between the "News-Finds-Me" Perception and COVID-19 Misperceptions

In the current media environment, some individuals have shifted from actively monitoring news toward passively waiting for the media to alert them about news to a certain extent, forming a "news-finds-me" (NFM) perception. Drawing on a cross-sectional survey (N = 906) of adults from the United States, this study investigates the relationship between the NFM perception and COVID-19 misperceptions. Findings demonstrated a positive association between NFM perception and misperceptions. Moreover, information avoidance mediated the relationship between NFM and misperception. Finally, need for cognition (NFC) was a significant moderator, such that among those with greater NFC, the indirect effect of NFM perception on misperceptions became weaker. Findings of this study can contribute to the literature of NFM perception in health contexts and provide useful guidelines for combating misinformation and misperceptions in the algorithm-generated information environment.

Explaining Health Misinformation Belief through News, Social, and Alternative Health Media Use: The Moderating Roles of Need for Cognition and Faith in Intuition

Explaining the spread and impact of health misinformation has garnered considerable attention with the uptake of social media and group messaging applications. This study contributes to that line of work by investigating how reliance on multiple digital media may help support or suppress misinformation belief, and how individual differences in misinformation susceptibility condition this process. Alternative health outlets (AH media), advocating home/homeopathic remedies over conventional medicine can be important sources of misinformation, yet are largely ignored previously. In this study, we first test how reliance on different platforms predicts health misinformation belief. Drawing from the elaboration likelihood model, we further investigate how need for cognition (NFC) and faith in intuition (FI) moderate the relationship between news reliance and susceptibility to misinformation. We conducted a survey in Singapore, Turkey, and the U.S (N = 3,664) to measure how these proposed relationships explain misinformed beliefs about vaccines, genetically modified foods and alternative medicine. We found reliance on online legacy news was negatively associated with the likelihood of believing health misinformation, while the reverse was true for social media and AH media. Additionally, those with both greater NFC and FI were more susceptible to health misinformation when they relied on social media and AH media more. In contrast, neither NFC nor FI moderated the relationship between reliance on online legacy news and health misinformation belief. These findings, mostly consistent across countries, also show that extensive reliance on social media and AH media for news mostly overwhelms the individual differences in predicting misinformation belief.

"I feel it in my gut:" Epistemic Motivations, Political Beliefs, and Misperceptions of COVID-19 and the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

This project examines the intersection of political constructs and epistemic motivations as they relate to belief in misinformation. How we value the origins of knowledge - through feelings and intuition or evidence and data - has important implications for our susceptibility to misinformation. This project explores how these epistemic motivations correlate with political ideology, party identification, and favorability towards President Trump, and how epistemic and political constructs predict belief in misinformation about COVID and the 2020 election. Results from a US national survey from Nov-Dec 2020 illustrate that Republicans, conservatives, and those favorable towards President Trump held greater misperceptions about COVID and the 2020 election. Additionally, epistemic motivations were associated with political preferences; Republicans and conservatives were more likely to reject evidence, and Trump supporters more likely to value feelings and intuition. Mediation analyses support the proposition that Trump favorability, Republicanism, and conservatism may help account for the relationships between epistemic motivations and misperceptions. Results are discussed in terms of the messaging strategies of right-wing populist movements, and the implications for democracy and public health.

Explaining News Trust in Social Media News during the COVID-19 Pandemic-The Role of a Need for Cognition and News Engagement

During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, people have, in many cases, acquired information primarily from social media. Users' need to stay informed and the intensive circulation of news has led to the spread of misinformation. As they have engaged in news, it has raised the question of trust. This study provides a model on how news trust can be explained through a need for cognition and news engagement. Accordingly, 433 Slovenian social media users participated in our survey. Structural equation modeling revealed that (1) the lower the need for cognition and the more prior knowledge about COVID-19 users have, the more they believe that social media news comprises all facts about the disease; (2) the more users believe that news comprises all essential facts, the more they trust that the news depicts the actual situation about COVID-19 accurately; (3) the more users are interested in engaging with social media news, the more they trust that the actual situation about COVID-19 is depicted accurately. These findings may help authorities to frame messages about COVID-19 effectively. We suggest investing more effort in disseminating new scientific evidence about the disease to contribute to the accurate shaping of knowledge about COVID-19 among social media users.