Aging in an Era of Fake News

Prominent misinformation interventions reduce misperceptions but increase scepticism

Current interventions to combat misinformation, including fact-checking, media literacy tips and media coverage of misinformation, may have unintended consequences for democracy. We propose that these interventions may increase scepticism towards all information, including accurate information. Across three online survey experiments in three diverse countries (the United States, Poland and Hong Kong; total n = 6,127), we tested the negative spillover effects of existing strategies and compared them with three alternative interventions against misinformation. We examined how exposure to fact-checking, media literacy tips and media coverage of misinformation affects individuals' perception of both factual and false information, as well as their trust in key democratic institutions. Our results show that while all interventions successfully reduce belief in false information, they also negatively impact the credibility of factual information. This highlights the need for further improved strategies that minimize the harms and maximize the benefits of interventions against misinformation.

Fighting misinformation among the most vulnerable users

Misinformation undermines trust in the integrity of democratic elections, the safety of vaccines, and the authenticity of footage from war zones. Social scientists have proposed many solutions to reduce individuals' demand for fake news, but it is unclear how to evaluate them. Efficacy can mean that an intervention increases discernment (the ability to distinguish true from false content), works over a delay, scales up, and engages users. I argue that experts should also consider differences in exposure prevalence before declaring success. Misleading content makes up a small fraction of the average person's news diet, but some groups are at increased risk - conservatives and older adults see and share the most fake news. Targeting the whole population (universal prevention) could concentrate benefits among the users who already see the least misinformation to begin with. In complement to these approaches, we should design interventions for the people who need them most - conservatives and older adults (selective prevention), as well as users who have already shared low-quality news (indicated prevention).

Who Gets Caught in the Web of Lies?: Understanding Susceptibility to Phishing Emails, Fake News Headlines, and Scam Text Messages

OBJECTIVE

The present study investigated if the same users are vulnerable to phishing emails, scam text messages, and fake news headlines and if there are universal predictors of susceptibility for all three tasks.

BACKGROUND

Theoretical research provides support for the notion that the same users likely fall for multiple forms of online deception. However, no research has directly compared susceptibility for various online deceptions (eg phishing, disinformation, scam text messages) within the same group of users.

METHOD

Participants completed an online survey consisting of demographic questions, the Cognitive Reflection Test (ie impulsivity), and the Digital Literacy Scale, and classified 90 legitimate and deceptive emails, text messages, and news headlines.

RESULTS

Results suggest that individuals who struggle to discriminate between deceptive and legitimate stimuli on one task experience similar difficulties on the other two tasks. Additionally, while lower levels of digital literacy and cognitive reflectiveness predicted poorer discrimination abilities across all three tasks, age did not predict performance. Interestingly, participants appeared to be the most susceptible to phishing emails.

CONCLUSION

Overall, individuals who fall for one form of online deception appear to be more likely to fall for other forms of deception, and digital literacy and cognitive reflectiveness can predict widespread vulnerability to online deception.

APPLICATION

Organizations may be able to identify potential vulnerabilities for a variety of online attacks by measuring digital literacy, cognitive reflectiveness, and performance in one online deception task. Additionally, training interventions may be the most needed for phishing emails.

Accuracy, readability, and understandability of large language models for prostate cancer information to the public

BACKGROUND

Generative Pretrained Model (GPT) chatbots have gained popularity since the public release of ChatGPT. Studies have evaluated the ability of different GPT models to provide information about medical conditions. To date, no study has assessed the quality of ChatGPT outputs to prostate cancer related questions from both the physician and public perspective while optimizing outputs for patient consumption.

METHODS

Nine prostate cancer-related questions, identified through Google Trends (Global), were categorized into diagnosis, treatment, and postoperative follow-up. These questions were processed using ChatGPT 3.5, and the responses were recorded. Subsequently, these responses were re-inputted into ChatGPT to create simplified summaries understandable at a sixth-grade level. Readability of both the original ChatGPT responses and the layperson summaries was evaluated using validated readability tools. A survey was conducted among urology providers (urologists and urologists in training) to rate the original ChatGPT responses for accuracy, completeness, and clarity using a 5-point Likert scale. Furthermore, two independent reviewers evaluated the layperson summaries on correctness trifecta: accuracy, completeness, and decision-making sufficiency. Public assessment of the simplified summaries' clarity and understandability was carried out through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Participants rated the clarity and demonstrated their understanding through a multiple-choice question.

RESULTS

GPT-generated output was deemed correct by 71.7% to 94.3% of raters (36 urologists, 17 urology residents) across 9 scenarios. GPT-generated simplified layperson summaries of this output was rated as accurate in 8 of 9 (88.9%) scenarios and sufficient for a patient to make a decision in 8 of 9 (88.9%) scenarios. Mean readability of layperson summaries was higher than original GPT outputs ([original ChatGPT v. simplified ChatGPT, mean (SD), p-value] Flesch Reading Ease: 36.5(9.1) v. 70.2(11.2), <0.0001; Gunning Fog: 15.8(1.7) v. 9.5(2.0), p < 0.0001; Flesch Grade Level: 12.8(1.2) v. 7.4(1.7), p < 0.0001; Coleman Liau: 13.7(2.1) v. 8.6(2.4), 0.0002; Smog index: 11.8(1.2) v. 6.7(1.8), <0.0001; Automated Readability Index: 13.1(1.4) v. 7.5(2.1), p < 0.0001). MTurk workers (n = 514) rated the layperson summaries as correct (89.5-95.7%) and correctly understood the content (63.0-87.4%).

CONCLUSION

GPT shows promise for correct patient education for prostate cancer-related contents, but the technology is not designed for delivering patients information. Prompting the model to respond with accuracy, completeness, clarity and readability may enhance its utility when used for GPT-powered medical chatbots.

Can Media Literacy Intervention Improve Fake News Credibility Assessment? A Meta-Analysis

Fake news impacts individuals' behavior and decision-making while also disrupting political processes, perceptions of medical advice, and societal trends. Improving individuals' ability to accurately assess fake news can reduce its harmful effects. However, previous research on media literacy interventions designed for improving fake news credibility assessments has yielded inconsistent results. We systematically collected 33 independent studies and performed a meta-analysis to examine the effects of media literacy interventions on assessing fake news credibility (n = 36,256). The results showed that media literacy interventions significantly improved fake news credibility assessments (Hedges' g = 0.53, 95% confidence interval [0.29-0.78], p < 0.001). Gaming interventions were the most effective intervention form. Conversely, the intervention channel, outcome measurement, and subject characteristics (age, gender, and country development level) did not influence the intervention effects.

"I Do Not Trust Health Information Shared by My Parents": Credibility Judgement of Health (Mis)information on Social Media in China

The surge of health misinformation on social media poses a threat to public health. This qualitative study reports how users process health misinformation from the dominant strong-tie social media, WeChat, in China. We conducted ten on-site focus groups involving 76 adult participants. Drawing on the apomediation theory and the dual processing model of credibility assessment, we found the heuristic approach to processing health information was the dominant route of engagement. We identified four categories of credibility assessment cues, including (1) expertise, authority, and commercial intent of original sources, (2) expertise of apomediaries (i.e. social media information sharers) and generational bias, (3) clickbait and sensational content versus objective scientific style, and (4) disconfirmation versus confirmation bias. We highlight that apomediaries are playing an increasingly important role in informing credibility judgment. Specifically, younger adults have formed a generational bias of deeming older apomediaries as cues of lower credibility.

How older adults manage misinformation and information overload - A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic was characterized by an abundance of information, some of it reliable and some of it misinformation. Evidence-based data on the impact of misinformation on attitudes and behaviours remains limited. Studies indicate that older adults are more likely to embrace and disseminate misinformation than other population groups, making them vulnerable to misinformation. The purpose of this article is to explore the effects of misinformation and information overload on older adults, and to present the management strategies put in place to deal with such effects, in the context of COVID-19.

METHODS

A qualitative exploratory approach was adopted to conduct this research. A total of 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with older adults living in Quebec, Canada. The interviews were fully transcribed and subjected to a thematic content analysis.

RESULTS

Participants said they could easily spot misinformation online. Despite this, misinformation and its treatment by the media could generate fear, stress and anxiety. Moreover, the polarization induced by misinformation resulted in tensions and even friendship breakdowns. Participants also denounced the information overload produced largely by the media. To this end, the participants set up information routines targeting the sources of information and the times at which they consulted the information.

CONCLUSIONS

This article questions the concept of vulnerability to misinformation by highlighting older adults' agency in managing misinformation and information overload. Furthermore, this study invites us to rethink communication strategies by distinguishing between information overload and misinformation.

Age differences in the context of climate change: Does exposure to a fake consensus statement make a difference?

The present study examined whether people of different age groups respond differently to a true versus fake consensus statement concerning climate change. In total, 309 participants were randomly exposed to a true consensus statement about climate change and 311 were exposed to a false statement. Subsequently, respondents were asked to respond to items about attitudes, feelings, and behavioral intentions concerning climate change. Compared with younger people, older persons are significantly more concerned about climate change, more likely to report that climate change is real and more willing to take climate change action. Nevertheless, older persons also are more likely to be willing to post both fake and truthful information about climate change, thus, possibly serving as spreaders of both fake and truthful information. The findings suggest that it is younger people who will benefit from further education about climate change and older people who may benefit from education about the spread of information in social media. Our findings also suggest that simply providing individuals with consensus information has only limited impact on their climate change attitudes, feelings and behavioral intentions.

[Mis- and disinformation in social media: mitigating risks in digital health communication]

Misinformation and disinformation in social media have become a challenge for effective public health measures. Here, we examine factors that influence believing and sharing false information, both misinformation and disinformation, at individual, social, and contextual levels and discuss intervention possibilities.At the individual level, knowledge deficits, lack of skills, and emotional motivation have been associated with believing in false information. Lower health literacy, a conspiracy mindset and certain beliefs increase susceptibility to false information. At the social level, the credibility of information sources and social norms influence the sharing of false information. At the contextual level, emotions and the repetition of messages affect belief in and sharing of false information.Interventions at the individual level involve measures to improve knowledge and skills. At the social level, addressing social processes and social norms can reduce the sharing of false information. At the contextual level, regulatory approaches involving social networks is considered an important point of intervention.Social inequalities play an important role in the exposure to and processing of misinformation. It remains unclear to which degree the susceptibility to belief in and share misinformation is an individual characteristic and/or context dependent. Complex interventions are required that should take into account multiple influencing factors.

The "Angry (Digital) Silver" in South Korea: The Rhetoric Around Older Adults' Digital Media Literacy

Naïve yet threatening is how the South Korean news media have characterized some older adults who have taken to social media to air their political views. Labeled as "angry (digital) silver," these older adults using YouTube and other social media platforms for political activity are portrayed as digitally illiterate and aggressive. This paper examines the rhetoric surrounding older adults' digital media literacy in scholarship and popular news media with a focus on the news media's portrayal of older adults' digital political activity. By analyzing the use of language and various rhetorical strategies, I argue that specific rhetoric of caution, which warns against older adults' so-called lower digital media literacy, is used to invalidate their digital political activity. I draw upon the case of the "Taegukgi squad"-a political group mainly composed of older adults in South Korea-and the evolution of their digital presence. Addressing the media's biased portrayal of older adults' digital media literacy, this paper further invites reflection on controversies around the role of age in digital political activities around the globe.

Adult age-related differences in susceptibility to social conformity pressures in self-control over daily desires

Developmental literature suggests that susceptibility to social conformity pressure peaks in adolescence and disappears with maturity into early adulthood. Predictions about these behaviors are less clear for middle-aged and older adults. On the one hand, while age-related increases in prioritization of socioemotional goals might predict greater susceptibility to social conformity pressures, aging is also associated with enhanced emotion regulation that could support resistance to conformity pressures. In this exploratory research study, we used mobile experience sampling surveys to naturalistically track how 157 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 80 practice self-control over spontaneous desires in daily life. Many of these desires were experienced in the presence of others enacting that desire. Results showed that middle-aged and older adults were better at controlling their desires than younger adults when desires were experienced in the presence of others enacting that desire. Consistent with the literature on improved emotion regulation with age, these results provide evidence that the ability to resist social conformity pressure is enhanced across the adult life span. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Memory and aging across cultures

Memory declines are commonly reported with age, but the majority of research has been conducted with narrow segments of the world's population. We argue for the importance of considering culture in the study of cognitive aging in order to have a representative, accurate understanding of the effects of aging on memory. Limited research thus far investigates the effects of culture on the use of categories and the self in memory with age, finding that cultural differences tend to be larger for older than younger adults. Frameworks drawing on top-down and bottom-up processes may account for when more or less cultural variation would be expected in cognitive performance. Promising future research directions include socio-emotional memory and expanding samples to address global inequities.

Strategies for Assessing Health Information Credibility Among Older Social Media Users in China: A Qualitative Study

The fact that social media gives users easy access to online health information raises the question of what information evaluation strategies older adults use to distinguish trustworthy from unreliable health information. Identifying how older adults assess the credibility of health information that they acquire on social media is an important step toward understanding and reducing their susceptibility to health misinformation. In this study, we investigated the credibility assessment strategies used by older WeChat users in China. Following a qualitative approach, we conducted in-depth interviews with 40 WeChat users 65-85 years old (M = 71.75, SD = 6.65) in China who had acquired health information on WeChat. Results of theoretical thematic analysis revealed five source-based and content-based evaluative strategies: (1) determining the communicative orientation of the source, (2) assessing source reputation, (3) confirming content based on life experiences, (4) checking for exaggeration in claimed effects, and (5) assessing the consistency of content across sources. Older WeChat users' reliance on certain heuristic cues and their self-reliant approach to assessing information credibility provide contextual explanations for the link between heuristic processing and susceptibility to health misinformation. The findings have implications for anti-misinformation interventions targeting the older population in China and potentially beyond.

Conspiracy mentality, subclinical paranoia, and political conservatism are associated with perceived status threat

Status threat (i.e., concern that one's dominant social group will be undermined by outsiders) is a significant factor in current United States politics. While demographic factors such as race (e.g., Whiteness) and political affiliation (e.g., conservatism) tend to be associated with heightened levels of status threat, its psychological facets have yet to be fully characterized. Informed by a "paranoid" model of American politics, we explored a suite of possible psychological and demographic associates of perceived status threat, including race/ethnicity, political conservatism, analytic thinking, magical ideation, subclinical paranoia, and conspiracy mentality. In a small, quota sample drawn from the United States (N = 300), we found that conspiracy mentality, subclinical paranoia, conservatism, and age were each positively (and uniquely) associated with status threat. In addition to replicating past work linking conservatism to status threat, this study identifies subclinical paranoia and conspiracy mentality as novel psychological associates of status threat. These findings pave the way for future research regarding how and why status threat concerns may become exaggerated in certain individuals, possibly to the detriment of personal and societal wellbeing.

Breaking (Fake) News: No Personal Relevance Effect on Misinformation Vulnerability

The massive spread of fake news (FN) requires a better understanding of both risks and protective psychological factors underlying vulnerability to misinformation. Prior studies have mostly dealt with news that do not bear any direct personal relevance to participants. Here, we ask whether high-stakes news topics may decrease vulnerability to FN. Data were collected during the national lockdown in Italy (COVID-19 news) and one year later (political news). We compared truth discrimination and overall belief for true news (TN) and FN concerning COVID-19 and political topics. Our findings indicate that psychological risk and protective factors have similar effects on truth discrimination, regardless of whether the news topic is highly or minimally personally relevant. However, we found different effects of psychological factors on overall belief, for high and low personal relevance. These results suggest that, given a high level of cognitive dissonance, individuals tend to rely on proximal or emotional sources of information. In summary, our study underscores the importance of understanding the psychological factors that contribute to vulnerability to misinformation, particularly in high-stakes news contexts.

Deepfakes and scientific knowledge dissemination

Science misinformation on topics ranging from climate change to vaccines have significant public policy repercussions. Artificial intelligence-based methods of altering videos and photos (deepfakes) lower the barriers to the mass creation and dissemination of realistic, manipulated digital content. The risk of exposure to deepfakes among education stakeholders has increased as learners and educators rely on videos to obtain and share information. We field the first study to understand the vulnerabilities of education stakeholders to science deepfakes and the characteristics that moderate vulnerability. We ground our study in climate change and survey individuals from five populations spanning students, educators, and the adult public. Our sample is nationally representative of three populations. We found that 27-50% of individuals cannot distinguish authentic videos from deepfakes. All populations exhibit vulnerability to deepfakes which increases with age and trust in information sources but has a mixed relationship with political orientation. Adults and educators exhibit greater vulnerability compared to students, indicating that those providing education are especially susceptible. Vulnerability increases with exposure to potential deepfakes, suggesting that deepfakes become more pernicious without interventions. Our results suggest that focusing on the social context in which deepfakes reside is one promising strategy for combatting deepfakes.

Misinformation about COVID-19 among middle-aged and older migrants residing in Brazil and Portugal

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation among migrants aged 50 or older residing in Brazil and Portugal.

METHOD

This was a cross-sectional analytical study conducted among migrants from Portuguese-speaking countries living in Brazil and Portugal, who were 50 years of age or older. The prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated using the Poisson regression model.

RESULTS

Out of the 304 participants included in the study, 188 (61.8%) agreed with at least one piece of misinformation. Factors such as having a religious affiliation (aPR: 1.24), higher educational attainment (aPR: 1.17), knowing someone who died from COVID-19 (aPR: 1.78), and having no intention to get vaccinated (aPR: 1.36) were associated with a higher likelihood of agreeing with COVID-19 misinformation.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that access to misinformation was influenced by social, economic, and religious factors among elderly migrants with low digital literacy, thus contributing to the dissemination of false content within this population.

Agreement with COVID-19 disinformation among Portuguese-speaking older adults: an international study

OBJECTIVES

to assess agreement with COVID-19 disinformation among Portuguese-speaking individuals aged 50 years or older.

METHODS

a descriptive and analytical study involving 1,214 older adults born in Portuguese-speaking countries. Data collection occurred through online information mining to recognize COVID-19 and disinformation content, and the application of a structured questionnaire.

RESULTS

agreement with disinformation content was 65.2%. Residing outside Brazil is a protective factor for agreement with disinformation content, and those who believe in the truthfulness of the information sources they receive were 31% more likely to agree with disinformation content.

CONCLUSIONS

there is a high prevalence of disinformation among the older population in two Portuguese-speaking countries, which should raise the attention of healthcare professionals and guide coping strategies.

Validation of the Assessments of Adult Health Literacy: A Rasch Measurement Model Approach

Background

Both the World Health Organization and U.S. Department for Health and Human Services have emphasized the importance of health literacy (HL) to improving population health and reducing health disparities. HL includes three core areas/qualities: functional (i.e., health-related reading, writing, and numeracy), interactive/communicative (i.e., skills for interacting with multiple constituents and sources of information and navigating the health environment), and critical (i.e., personal and community advocacy for health). HL is implicated in medical adherence, preventive health, mental health stigma and help-seeking, and health decision-making. Though HL is critical to health and health decision-making, research on HL is still relatively limited, with most research focusing on functional HL. A major gap in research is related to the lack of measurement of interactive and critical HL. To address this gap, this study modified and assessed the validity of the Assessments of Adolescent Health Literacy (AAHL-Adolescent), test-based assessments of adolescents' functional, interactive, and critical HL, in an adult sample.

Methods

One item from the AAHL-Adolescent item bank was modified to be more appropriate for an adult sample. Adults (n=2346) completed a measurement battery that included the HL item bank (12 functional, 15 interactive, and 9 critical HL questions), Newest Vital Sign (NVS), Single-Item Literacy Scale (SILS), demographics, and questions about HL-related behaviors. The assessments were evaluated and validated using Rasch measurement models. Convergent and criterion validity were assessed.

Results

The final 7-item functional, 10-item interactive, and 7-item critical HL assessments and their composite (24 items) fit their respective Rasch models. Item-level invariance was established for gender, ethnicity, education, and age across all assessments. Differential item functioning for race was noted for two items on the interactive HL assessments. Good convergent validity with the NVS and SILS and good criterion validity with the HL-related behaviors were observed for all assessments.

Conclusions

The AAHL-Adult is the first test-based instrument validated in the U.S. that includes assessments for all three core qualities of HL. These assessments have utility across multiple settings, including public health program planning and evaluation, intervention development and evaluation, and clinical settings.

Bias and constructive processes in a self-memory system

Martin Conway's influential theorising about the self-memory system (Conway, M. A., & Pleydell-Pearce, C. W. (2000). The construction of autobiographical memories in the self-memory system. Psychological Review, 107(2), 261-288) illuminated how the "working self" influences the construction of autobiographical memories. Moreover, his constructive view of self and memory is compatible with the occurrence of various kinds of errors and distortions in remembering. Here we consider one of the "seven sins" of memory Schacter, D. L. (2021). The seven sins of memory updated edition: How the mind forgets and remembers. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) that we believe is most closely related to the operation of Conway's self-memory system: bias, which refers to the role of current knowledge, beliefs, and feelings in shaping and sometimes distorting memories for past experiences and attitudes. More specifically, we discuss recent research on three forms of bias - consistency, self-enhancing, and positivity biases - that illuminate their role in influencing how people remember the past and also imagine the future. We consider both theoretical and applied aspects of these biases and, consistent with Conway's perspective, argue that despite sometimes contributing to inaccuracies, bias also serves adaptive functions.

Television News Media Consumption and Misperceptions about COVID-19 among US Populations at High Risk for Severe Health Outcomes Early in the Pandemic

Research indicates that misperceptions that become part of people's initial mental models about an issue tend to persist and influence their attitudes even after the misperception has been corrected. Recent work on evolving mental models suggests that communication efforts about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath may be improved by crafting messages that acknowledge biases and misunderstandings about the virus and other infectious diseases that may remain among members of the target audience. This study was designed to provide insight into such biases by: (1) establishing salient categories of COVID-related misperceptions in the earliest months of the pandemic in the United States among (a) the general population, and (b) demographic sub-populations at high risk of severe health outcomes; (2) identifying demographic predictors of misperceptions; and (3) examining the relationship between consumption of different television news outlets and agreement with misperceptions about COVID-19. A national sample of 1,000 adults in the United States (48.1% male; M age = 47.32, SD = 18.01; 72.9% White/Caucasian, 14.3% Black/African American, 15.9% Hispanic/Latinx) completed a survey between March 19 and March 25, 2020. Results identify prevalent classes of salient early COVID-19 misperceptions. Adjusting for numerous covariates, data indicated individuals over the age of 60 held the fewest COVID-related misperceptions among various demographic sub-populations, misperceptions were most prevalent among Black respondents, and increased consumption of television network news was associated with lower levels of misperception. Consumption of some 24-hour news networks (FOX and MSNBC) were significant positive correlates of misperceptions.

Fake News and the Sleeper Effect in Social Media Posts: the Case of Perception of Safety in the Workplace

Fake news and misinformation on social media platforms are two of the biggest problems of the last few years. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of memory is of fundamental importance to develop specific intervention programs. In this study, 324 white-collar workers viewed Facebook posts focused on coronavirus disease-2019 prevention norms in the workplace. In a within-participants design, we manipulated the message and the source to expose each participant to real news, real news presented by a discounting cue (sleeper effect condition), and fake news. The results show that participants were more susceptible to fake news during a 1-week delayed posttest following a memory recall process. Furthermore, they remembered the message easily, but not the source, which did not differ in the real-news conditions. We discuss the results, mentioning the sleeper effect and fake news theories.

Exposure to untrustworthy websites in the 2020 US election

Research using large-scale data on individuals' internet use has provided vital information about the scope and nature of exposure to misinformation online. However, most prior work relies on data collected during the 2016 US election. Here we examine exposure to untrustworthy websites during the 2020 US election, using over 7.5 million website visits from 1,151 American adults. We find that 26.2% (95% confidence interval 22.5% to 29.8%) of Americans were exposed to untrustworthy websites in 2020, down from 44.3% (95% confidence interval 40.8% to 47.7%) in 2016. Older adults and conservatives continued to be the most exposed in 2020 as in 2016, albeit at lower rates. The role of online platforms in exposing people to untrustworthy websites changed, with Facebook playing a smaller role in 2020 than in 2016. Our findings do not minimize misinformation as a key social problem, but instead highlight important changes in its consumption, suggesting directions for future research and practice.

One Dose Is Not Enough: The Beneficial Effect of Corrective COVID-19 Information Is Diminished If Followed by Misinformation

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a series of mythbuster infographics to combat misinformation during the COVID-19 infodemic. While the corrective effects of such debunking interventions have typically been examined in the immediate aftermath of intervention delivery; the durability of these corrective effects and their resilience against subsequent misinformation remains poorly understood. To this end, we asked younger and older adults to rate the truthfulness and credibility of 10 statements containing misinformation about common COVID-19 myths, as well as their willingness to share the statements through social media. They did this three times, before and after experimental interventions within a single study session. In keeping with established findings, exposure to the WHO's myth-busting infographics-(a) improved participants' ratings of the misinformation statements as untruthful and uncredible and (b) reduced their reported willingness to share the statements. However, within-subject data revealed these beneficial effects were diminished if corrective information was presented shortly by misinformation, but the effects remained when further corrective information was presented. Throughout the study, younger adults rated the misinformation statements as more truthful and credible and were more willing to share them. Our data reveal that the benefit of COVID-19 debunking interventions may be short-lived if followed shortly by misinformation. Still, the effect can be maintained in the presence of further corrective information. These outcomes provide insights into the effectiveness and durability of corrective information and can influence strategies for tackling health-related misinformation, especially in younger adults.

The Worldwide Utilization of Online Information about Dementia from 2004 to 2022: An Infodemiological Study of Google and Wikipedia

With the advent of Infodemics about health conditions, including dementia, nurses can engage in infodemiological studies to inform public health services and policies. This infodemiological study described the worldwide utilization of online information for dementia using Google Trends and Wikipedia page views. It found that the utilization of online information about dementia increased and will further increase using Google in succeeding years. Thus, the Internet is an increasingly important medium for dementia information in this age of misinformation and disinformation. Nurse informaticists can perform national infodemiological studies to inform and contextualize online dementia information. Likewise, public health, geriatric, and mental health nurses can collaborate with their communities and patients to address online disinformation and create culturally-appropriate information about dementia.

Sex and Love Among Older Adults in the Digital World: A Scoping Review

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The digital world offers opportunities for sex and love and also reflects societal stereotypes regarding sex and love among older adults. The aim of the current review is to look at the ways older adults use digital media for sex and love and also at digital media's representations of older adults.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

We searched for studies published in English that used qualitative and/or quantitative methods, with findings based on empirical data from individuals 55 years of age or older. The following data sets were searched: PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and CINAHL. Bibliographies of all relevant studies were searched. Titles and abstracts were reviewed, and selected articles were extracted independently by 2 reviewers.

RESULTS

A total of 1,819 records were retrieved. After removing duplicates, 1,488 records remained. Of these, 70 records remained for full-text screening, and a final count of 15 records was included for synthesis.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The present review highlights major research gaps in the field. Although studies have indeed focused on the online dating scene among this cohort, they have ignored older adults' sexuality in favor of other aspects (e.g., love and companionship). Representations of this cohort in terms of love and sex are also lacking, and diversity is hardly addressed. Additional research is needed to examine how older adults use digital media for reasons related to love and sex, and how the media mirrors societal stereotypes regarding sex and love among older adults.

Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: A cross-sectional study in Malang District, Indonesia

Introduction

Vaccine hesitancy could undermine efforts to reduce incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is crucial to tailoring strategies to increase vaccination acceptance. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of and the reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Malang District, Indonesia.

Methods

Data come from a cross-sectional study among individuals aged 17-85 years old (N = 3,014). Multivariate ordered logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with postponing or refusing COVID-19 vaccines. The Oxford COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy scale was used to measure vaccine hesitancy. A wide range of reasons for hesitancy, including coronavirus vaccine confidence and complacency, vaccination knowledge, trust and attitude in health workers and health providers, coronavirus conspiracy, anger reaction and need for chaos, populist views, lifestyle, and religious influence, was examined.

Results and discussion

The results show that 60.2% of the respondents were hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Low confidence and complacency beliefs about the vaccine (OR = 1.229, 95% CI = 1.195-1.264) and more general sources of mistrust within the community, particularly regarding health providers (OR = 1.064, 95% CI = 1.026-1.102) and vaccine developers (OR = 1.054, 95% CI = 1.027-1.082), are associated with higher levels of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is also associated with anger reactions (OR = 1.019, 95% CI = 0.998-1.040), need for chaos (OR = 1.044, 95% CI = 1.022-1.067), and populist views (OR = 1.028, 95% CI = 1.00-1.056). The findings were adjusted for socio-demographic factors, including age, sex, education, marital status, working status, type of family, household income, religious beliefs, and residency. The results suggest the need for an effective health promotion program to improve community knowledge of the COVID-19 vaccine, while effective strategies to tackle "infodemics" are needed to address hesitancy during a new vaccine introduction program.

Individual (Non) Resilience of University Students to Digital Media Manipulation after COVID-19 (Case Study of Slovak Initiatives)

The starting point of this theoretical article is the presentation of the issue of media manipulation in the contemporary digital media environment. The theoretical part is followed by a description and analysis of selected factors that create a belief of the individual's resilience to digital media manipulative elements. Among the seven researched factors of an individual's (non) resilience to digital media manipulation, we include: media illiteracy/literacy, thought activity/laziness, searching/not searching for "consensus" in the media, not emphasizing/emphasizing emotions, non-reliance/reliance on own intuition, non-credibility/credibility in the opinion of celebrities and automatic distrust/trust of recipients in the information presented in the media and others. We do not see the presence of manipulative elements in digital media as the main danger (manipulation is always in a sense part of the media message), nor the fact that manipulative elements have an effect on individuals (media-manipulative and non-manipulative-effects cannot be doubted). In our opinion, the very significant risk is the fact that the media message is followed by a false belief of the recipient's own "immunity" against (covert and overt) media manipulation. The result of this false notion is the individual's belief that manipulation in digital media content does not "affect" him ("I can easily recognize media manipulation") and does not "touch" him ("It can't happen to me"). Such a person then resembles a "house on the sand", as his opinions, arguments or beliefs quickly collapse under the onslaught of five skills: challenges in the context of media literacy, critical thinking, strategies for verifying the credibility of information sources, the rational assessment of issues and reflection of reality. This original research article is a qualitative analysis of the legacy of ten Slovak educational initiatives focused on the issue of education in the context of media manipulation. The analysis focuses on the role of individual risk factors associated with resilience. The conclusion of the analysis is the elaboration of a positive proposal for the researched issue.

Psychological interventions countering misinformation in social media: A scoping review

Introduction

The rise of social media users and the explosive growth in misinformation shared across social media platforms have become a serious threat to democratic discourse and public health. The mentioned implications have increased the demand for misinformation detection and intervention. To contribute to this challenge, we are presenting a systematic scoping review of psychological interventions countering misinformation in social media. The review was conducted to (i) identify and map evidence on psychological interventions countering misinformation, (ii) compare the viability of the interventions on social media, and (iii) provide guidelines for the development of effective interventions.

Methods

A systematic search in three bibliographic databases (PubMed, Embase, and Scopus) and additional searches in Google Scholar and reference lists were conducted.

Results

3,561 records were identified, 75 of which met the eligibility criteria for the inclusion in the final review. The psychological interventions identified during the review can be classified into three categories distinguished by Kozyreva et al.: Boosting, Technocognition, and Nudging, and then into 15 types within these. Most of the studied interventions were not implemented and tested in a real social media environment but under strictly controlled settings or online crowdsourcing platforms. The presented feasibility assessment of implementation insights expressed qualitatively and with numerical scoring could guide the development of future interventions that can be successfully implemented on social media platforms.

Discussion

The review provides the basis for further research on psychological interventions counteracting misinformation. Future research on interventions should aim to combine effective Technocognition and Nudging in the user experience of online services.

Systematic review registration

[https://figshare.com/], identifier [https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14649432.v2].

Memory failure predicts belief regression after the correction of misinformation

After misinformation has been corrected, people initially update their belief extremely well. However, this change is rarely sustained over time, with belief returning towards pre-correction levels. This is called belief regression. The current study aimed to examine the association between memory for the correction and belief regression, and whether corrected misinformation suffers from belief regression more than affirmed facts. Participants from Prolific Academic (N = 612) rated the veracity of 16 misinformation and 16 factual items and were randomly assigned to a correction condition or test-retest control. Immediately after misinformation was corrected and facts affirmed, participants re-rated their belief and were asked whether they could remember the items' presented veracity. Participants repeated this post-test one month later. We found that belief and memory were highly associated, both immediately (⍴ = 0.51), and after one month (⍴ = 0.82), and that memory explained 66% of the variance in belief regression after correcting for measurement reliability. We found the rate of dissenting (accurately remembering that misinformation was presented as false but still believing it) remained stable between the immediate and delayed post-test, while the rate of forgetting quadrupled. After one month, 57% of participants who believed in the misinformation thought that the items were presented to them as true. Belief regression was more pronounced for misinformation than facts, but this was greatly attenuated once pre-test belief was equated. Together, these results clearly indicate that memory plays a fundamental role in belief regression, and that repeated corrections could be an effective method to counteract this phenomenon.

Breast cancer prevention and treatment misinformation on Twitter: An analysis of two languages

Objective

To determine the prevalence and types of misinformation on Twitter related to breast cancer prevention and treatment; and compare the differences between the misinformation in English and Malay tweets.

Methods

A total of 6221 tweets related to breast cancer posted between 2018 and 2022 were collected. An oncologist and two pharmacists coded the tweets to differentiate between true information and misinformation, and to analyse the misinformation content. Binary logistic regression was conducted to identify determinants of misinformation.

Results

There were 780 tweets related to breast cancer prevention and treatment, and 456 (58.5%) contain misinformation, with significantly more misinformation in Malay compared to English tweets (OR = 6.18, 95% CI: 3.45-11.07, p < 0.001). Other determinants of misinformation were tweets posted by product sellers and posted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Less misinformation was associated with tweets utilising official/peer-reviewed sources of information compared to tweets without external sources and those that utilised less reliable information sources. The top three most common content of misinformation were food and lifestyle, alternative medicine and supplements, comprising exaggerated claims of anti-cancer properties of traditional and natural-based products.

Conclusion

Misinformation on breast cancer prevention and treatment is prevalent on social media, with significantly more misinformation in Malay compared to English tweets. Our results highlighted that patients need to be educated on digital health literacy, with emphasis on utilising reliable sources of information and being cautious of any promotional materials that may contain misleading information. More studies need to be conducted in other languages to address the disparity in misinformation.

Information literacy, well-being, and rural older adults in a pandemic

Many older adults residing in rural communities faced particularly damaging consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Given the impact of the pandemic on the ability to rely on traditional forms of information (i.e. interpersonal communication), reliance on digital technology and other non-traditional sources of information grew. Those who lacked the information literacy, defined in this study as the ability to find and evaluate the reliability of information to address an information need, may have faced psychologically damaging consequences caused by the proliferation of misinformation and information poverty. Informed by an ecological understanding of human information behavior, this paper reports on the findings of a study of rural older adults’ information literacy skills and sense of well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. A mail survey, based on concepts from psychology and information science and question wordings adapted from the 2021 Health and Retirement Survey and Jones-Jang et al.’s study of literacies and fake news, was distributed in the summer of 2021 to older adults living in rural Kansas. About 206 valid responses to the survey were received. These were analyzed using correlation and regression testing. The findings indicate a significant relationship between information literacy skills and one’s overall sense of well-being. Personal (age, gender, health, life control), economic (employment, finances), and social-relational resources (social engagement, relationship quality) all were shown to relate positively to information literacy skills. These findings provide definition to our understanding of the importance of information literacy in modern understandings of psychological well-being.

The Relationship between Bullshit Receptivity and Willingness to Share Misinformation about Climate Change: The Moderating Role of Pregnancy

Widespread dissemination of misinformation about climate change has seriously harmed the health of future generations and the world. Moreover, misinformation-sharing behaviors exhibit strong individual characteristics. However, research is limited on the antecedents of and mechanism underlying the willingness to share misinformation about climate change in terms of individual personalities and physiological states. Accordingly, we surveyed 582 women (224 pregnant) using a questionnaire and constructed a moderated mediation model to explore the relationships among individuals' bullshit receptivity, belief in misinformation about climate change, willingness to share misinformation about climate change, and pregnancy. The results showed that: (1) bullshit receptivity is positively related to the willingness to share misinformation about climate change; (2) belief in misinformation about climate change mediates the relationship between bullshit receptivity and willingness to share misinformation about climate change; and (3) for individuals with higher bullshit receptivity, pregnancy exacerbates the detrimental effects of bullshit receptivity on belief in misinformation about climate change.

Relationship between new media literacy (NML) and web-based fake news epidemic control: a systematic literature review

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the current practices being implemented against the dissemination of fake online news, identify the relationship of new media literacy (NML) with fake news epidemic control and find out the challenges in identifying valid sources of information.

Design/methodology/approach

To accomplish constructed objectives of this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. The authors carried out the “Preferred Reporting Items for the Systematic Review and Meta-analysis” guidelines as a research methodology. The data were retrieved from ten world’s leading digital databases and online tools. A total of 25 key studies published in impact factor (IF) journals were included for systematic review vis-à-vis standard approaches.

Findings

This study revealed trending practices to control fake news consisted of critical information literacy, civic education, new thinking patterns, fact-checkers, automatic fake news detection tools, employment of ethical norms and deep learning via neural networks. Results of the synthesized studies revealed that media literacy, web literacy, digital literation, social media literacy skills and NML assisted acted as frontline soldiers in combating the fake news war. The findings of this research also exhibited different challenges to control fake news perils.

Research limitations/implications

This study provides pertinent theoretical contributions in the body of existing knowledge through the addition of valuable literature by conducting in-depth systematic review of 25 IF articles on a need-based topic.

Practical implications

This scholarly contribution is fruitful and practically productive for the policymakers belonging to different spectrums to effectively control web-based fake news epidemic.

Social implications

This intellectual piece is a benchmark to address fake news calamities to save the social system and to educate citizens from harms of false online stories on social networking websites.

Originality/value

This study vivifies new vistas via a reinvigorated outlook to address fake news perils embedded in dynamic, rigorous and heuristic strategies for redefining a predetermined set of social values.

On the realness of people who do not exist: The social processing of artificial faces

Today more than ever, we are asked to evaluate the realness, truthfulness and trustworthiness of our social world. Here, we focus on how people evaluate realistic-looking faces of non-existing people generated by generative adversarial networks (GANs). GANs are increasingly used in marketing, journalism, social media, and political propaganda. In three studies, we investigated if and how participants can distinguish between GAN and REAL faces and the social consequences of their exposure to artificial faces. GAN faces were more likely to be perceived as real than REAL faces, a pattern partly explained by intrinsic stimulus characteristics. Moreover, participants' realness judgments influenced their behavior because they displayed increased social conformity toward faces perceived as real, independently of their actual realness. Lastly, knowledge about the presence of GAN faces eroded social trust. Our findings point to potentially far-reaching consequences for the pervasive use of GAN faces in a culture powered by images at unprecedented levels.

Memory Sins in Applied Settings: What Kind of Progress?

Over two decades ago, I proposed that memory errors could be classified into seven basic categories or sins (Schacter, 1999, 2001), comprising three sins of omission (transience, absentmindedness, and blocking) and four sins of commission (misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence). In the past two decades, much has been learned about the nature and basis of the memory sins. Here, I assess the extent of progress that has been made during that time regarding applied implications of five of the sins: transience, absentmindedness, misattribution, suggestibility, and persistence. The manifestations of these sins have been examined in a variety of applied settings, including educational, clinical, legal, and technological domains. I argue that considerable progress has been made in characterizing the impact of memory sins in each domain, identify gaps in and limitations of our current knowledge, and briefly consider how these developments bear on broad questions regarding the reliability of human memory.

Could Belief in Fake News Predict Vaccination Behavior in the Elderly?

Willingness to get a vaccine was important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies suggest that vaccine hesitation during the pandemic could have been related to truth discernment, belief in information, exposure to misinformation, attitudes to vaccines, and conspiracy beliefs. Previous studies were mostly with younger adults, and studies with older adults are lacking. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between the trust or belief in fake online news (print news was not included), truth discernment, attitudes, and willingness to be vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic while controlling for some significant factors/variables that could affect vaccination in a sample of older adults. There were 504 pre-retirees and retirees participating in this study. Participants from Lithuania age ranged from 50 to 90 years old (M = 64.37, SD = 9.10), 58.3 percent were females. Results from several path models predicting the participants willingness to get a vaccine suggested that stronger conspiracy beliefs and skeptical attitudes toward vaccination would be related to lower willingness to get vaccinated. Participants who disbelieved in the headlines were already vaccinated. Therefore, it seems that discernment (the ability to distinguish which information is true and which is not) is not related to the willingness to vaccinate.

Not doomed: Examining the path from misinformation exposure to verification and correction in the context of COVID-19 pandemic

Misinformation exposure has attracted growing scholarly attention. While much research highlights misinformation exposure’s negative impacts, this study argues that its positive effects should also be noted. By using a more precise measurement of misinformation exposure and a path model, this study outlines a path from misinformation exposure to anti-misinformation behaviors, partially mediated by misperceptions in the context of COVID-19. Findings indicate that exposure to popular but widely-denounced COVID-19 misinformation via social media had positive effects on verification intention. Frequent exposure to misinformation on social media is associated with lower misperceptions, suggesting a healthy dose of skepticism toward the platform and low internalization of misinformation. Special attention, however, needs to be paid to online news websites and personal contacts as misinformation sources. More tailored interventions and communication strategies to reduce misperceptions and increase media-literate behaviors are needed for younger, conservative, and ethnic minority individuals. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.

Trust in COVID-19 public health information

Understanding the factors that influence trust in public health information is critical for designing successful public health campaigns during pandemics such as COVID-19. We present findings from a cross-sectional survey of 454 US adults-243 older (65+) and 211 younger (18-64) adults-who responded to questionnaires on human values, trust in COVID-19 information sources, attention to information quality, self-efficacy, and factual knowledge about COVID-19. Path analysis showed that trust in direct personal contacts (B = 0.071, p = .04) and attention to information quality (B = 0.251, p < .001) were positively related to self-efficacy for coping with COVID-19. The human value of self-transcendence, which emphasizes valuing others as equals and being concerned with their welfare, had significant positive indirect effects on self-efficacy in coping with COVID-19 (mediated by attention to information quality; effect = 0.049, 95% CI 0.001-0.104) and factual knowledge about COVID-19 (also mediated by attention to information quality; effect = 0.037, 95% CI 0.003-0.089). Our path model offers guidance for fine-tuning strategies for effective public health messaging and serves as a basis for further research to better understand the societal impact of COVID-19 and other public health crises.

Linking good counter-knowledge with bad counter knowledge: the impact of evasive knowledge hiding and defensive reasoning

Purpose

Counter-knowledge is knowledge learned from unverified sources and can be classified as good (i.e. harmful, for instance, funny jokes) or bad (for example, lies to manipulate others’ decisions). The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between these two elements and on the possible reactions they can induce on people and institutions.

Design/methodology/approach

The relationships between good and bad counter-knowledge and the induced reactions – namely, evasive knowledge hiding and defensive reasoning – are analysed through an empirical study among 151 Spanish citizens belonging to a knowledge-intensive organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. A two-step procedure has been established to assess a causal model with SmartPLS 3.2.9.

Findings

Results show that good counter-knowledge can lead to bad counter-knowledge. In addition, counter-knowledge can trigger evasive knowledge hiding, which, in turn, fosters defensive reasoning, in a vicious circle, which can negatively affect decision-making and also cause distrust in public institutions. This was evidenced during the covid-19 pandemic in relation to the measures taken by governments.

Originality/value

This study raises the awareness that counter-knowledge is a complex phenomenon, especially in a situation of serious crisis like a pandemic. In particular, it highlights that even good counter-knowledge can turn into bad and affect people’s decisional capability negatively. In addition, it signals that not all reactions to the proliferation of counter-knowledge by public institutions are positive. For instance, censorship and lack of transparency (i.e. evasive knowledge hiding) can trigger defensive reasoning, which can, in turn, affect people’s decisions and attitudes negatively.

Better safe than sorry: a study on older adults' credibility judgments and spreading of health misinformation

The online world is flooded with misinformation that puts older adults at risk, especially the misinformation about health and wellness. To understand older adults' vulnerability to online misinformation, this study examines how eye-catching headlines and emotional images impact their credibility judgments and spreading of health misinformation. Fifty-nine older adults aged between 58 and 83 years participated in this experiment. Firstly, participants intuitively chose an article for further reading among a bunch of headlines. Then they viewed the emotional images. Finally, they judged the credibility of health articles and decided whether to share these articles. On average, participants only successfully judged 41.38% of health articles. Attractive headlines not only attracted participants' clicks at first glance but also increased their credibility judgments on the content of health misinformation. Although participants were more willing to share an article they believed than not, 62.5% of the articles they want to share were falsehoods. Older adults in this study were notified of possible falsehoods in advance and were given enough time to discern misinformation before sharing. However, these efforts neither lead to a high judgment accuracy nor a high quality of information that they wanted to share. That may be on account of eye-catching headlines which misled participants into believing health misinformation. Besides, the most older adults in this study may follow the "better safe than sorry" principle when confronted with health misinformation, that is to say they would rather trust the misinformation to avoid health risks than doubt it.

Narrative elaboration makes misinformation and corrective information regarding COVID-19 more believable

OBJECTIVE

People gather information about health topics from online channels oftentimes awash with misinformation. Investigating this problem during the COVID-19 pandemic is important, as the misinformation effect occurs when misleading details are embedded in narratives and questions. This pilot study investigated whether narrative elaboration increases believability in misinformation statements about COVID-19, and willingness to share these statements online.

RESULTS

Results from our online survey (n = 80) demonstrated that narrative elaboration increased believability in both misinformation and accurate statements, with a more pronounced effect on younger adults. Future research may investigate cognitive vulnerabilities imposed by elaborate narratives embedded in online health misinformation with increased attention on developing misinformation resilience among younger adults.

Author Reply to: Empowering Without Misinforming Adolescents and Young Adults with Cystic Fibrosis. Comment on "Perceptions of Social Media Use to Augment Health Care Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Cystic Fibrosis: Survey Study"

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A Double-Edged Sword: The Role of Prior Knowledge in Memory Aging

Introduction

People accumulate knowledge throughout their lifespan and the accumulated knowledge influences how we encode and retrieve information in memory processing. This study aims to investigate the role of knowledge in associative memory across the adult lifespan, and specifically examines the effects of two material properties that interact with prior knowledge: congruency – whether the material is congruent with people’s prior knowledge, and ambiguity – whether the material is ambiguous to interpret based on prior knowledge.

Method

273 participants (aged 22–70 years old) completed an incidental memory task online. Participants were shown pictures depicting an object in a scene and judged if the object was likely or unlikely to be in the particular scene. Later, in the recognition test, participants were asked to identify if the exact picture was presented earlier. The pictures were manipulated to have varying levels of congruency, meaning that some depicted likely object–scene pairs and some unlikely. We also measured how different the likely/unlikely judgment for each object–scene pair was across all participants to determine the ambiguity level of the object–scene pair: some were more likely to receive diverse responses across people, whereas others are unambiguously consistent (or inconsistent) with common knowledge shared by most people. We used mixed-effects logistic regressions to predict memory outcome for each trial as a function of age, age², congruency/ambiguity, and their interactions.

Results

The object–scene pairs perceived as congruent had higher hit rates than incongruent ones, as well as higher false alarm rates, especially in middle-aged and older people. Higher ambiguity was also related to both greater true and false memory, independent of age. Finally, the effect of ambiguity only emerged when the object–scene pair was perceived incongruent.

Discussion

The results suggest that people rely on prior knowledge to process new information and that this reliance improves hit responses, but also induces false memories particularly for middle-aged and older people, suggesting a double-edged role of knowledge in associative memory and its disproportionate influence on memory aging. Over-reliance on knowledge in older adults, which has been suspected in other cognitive processes, may be one of the mechanisms underlying associative memory decrease in aging.

A digital media literacy intervention for older adults improves resilience to fake news

Older adults are especially susceptible to fake news online, possibly because they are less digitally literate compared to younger individuals. Interventions for older adults have emerged to improve digital literacy, although there has been little evaluation of their effectiveness in improving older adults’ resilience to fake news. We report the results of a digital literacy intervention for older adults administered during the 2020 U.S. election. The intervention was a 1-hour, self-directed series of interactive modules designed to teach concepts and skills for identifying misinformation online. Consistent with our pre-registered hypothesis, older adults (M_age = 67) in the treatment condition (N = 143) significantly improved their likelihood of accurately discerning fake from true news from 64% pre-intervention to 85% post-intervention. In contrast, older adults in the control condition (N = 238) did not significantly improve (from 55% to 57%). The treated older adults were also more likely to employ strategies for identifying misinformation online compared to pre-intervention and the control group.

Mental Health and Access to Information in Times of COVID-19: The Role of Social Work

The confinements and limited social interactions that have derived from COVID-19 have aggravated the situation of people with previous pathologies. As a result, access to health and its rehabilitation or support resources has been limited and redirected toward online care. People with mental health problems have considerably suffered during the pandemic because, for many of them, accessing different information resources through telematic means proved to be a great difficulty in their everyday lives. This exploratory research work aims to establish which elements have successfully facilitated access to online information for people with mental health problems. This is especially urgent in times of COVID-19 when misinformation has significantly harmed this group. To do so, we followed the communicative methodology and held interviews with two professionals and nine users who participated in the case study. The main results show that, in developing digital communicative competencies in accessing information with this group, individualization of care to overcome barriers, the link with social workers as references of truthful information, and the importance of emotional work and interactions are critical elements.