Psychological Inoculation for Credibility Assessment, Sharing Intention, and Discernment of Misinformation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

The prevalence of misinformation poses a substantial threat to individuals' daily lives, necessitating the deployment of effective remedial approaches. One promising strategy is psychological inoculation, which pre-emptively immunizes individuals against misinformation attacks. However, uncertainties remain regarding the extent to which psychological inoculation effectively enhances the capacity to differentiate between misinformation and real information.

OBJECTIVE

To reduce the potential risk of misinformation about digital health, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of psychological inoculation in countering misinformation with a focus on several factors, including misinformation credibility assessment, real information credibility assessment, credibility discernment, misinformation sharing intention, real information sharing intention, and sharing discernment.

METHODS

Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, we conducted a meta-analysis by searching 4 databases (Web of Science, APA PsycINFO, Proquest, and PubMed) for empirical studies based on inoculation theory and outcome measure-related misinformation published in the English language. Moderator analyses were used to examine the differences in intervention strategy, intervention type, theme, measurement time, team, and intervention design.

RESULTS

Based on 42 independent studies with 42,530 subjects, we found that psychological inoculation effectively reduces misinformation credibility assessment (d=-0.36, 95% CI -0.50 to -0.23; P<.001) and improves real information credibility assessment (d=0.20, 95% CI 0.06-0.33; P=.005) and real information sharing intention (d=0.09, 95% CI 0.03-0.16; P=.003). However, psychological inoculation does not significantly influence misinformation sharing intention (d=-0.35, 95% CI -0.79 to 0.09; P=.12). Additionally, we find that psychological inoculation effectively enhances credibility discernment (d=0.20, 95% CI 0.13-0.28; P<.001) and sharing discernment (d=0.18, 95% CI 0.12-0.24; P<.001). Regarding health misinformation, psychological inoculation effectively decreases misinformation credibility assessment and misinformation sharing intention. The results of the moderator analyses showed that content-based, passive inoculation was more effective in increasing credibility and sharing intention. The theme of climate change demonstrates a stronger effect on real information credibility. Comparing intervention types showed that pre-post interventions are more effective for misinformation credibility assessment, while post-only interventions are better for credibility discernment.

CONCLUSIONS

This study indicated that psychological inoculation enhanced individuals' ability to discern real information from misinformation and share real information. Incorporating psychological inoculation to cultivate an informed public is crucial for societal resilience against misinformation threats in an age of information proliferation. As a scalable and cost-effective intervention strategy, institutions can apply psychological inoculation to mitigate potential misinformation crises.

Learning to Discern the Voices of Gods, Spirits, Tulpas, and the Dead

There are communities in which hearing voices frequently is common and expected, and in which participants are not expected to have a need for care. This paper compares the ideas and practices of these communities. We observe that these communities utilize cultural models to identify and to explain voice-like events-and that there are some common features to these models across communities. All communities teach participants to "discern," or identify accurately, the legitimate voice of the spirit or being who speaks. We also observe that there are roughly two methods taught to participants to enable them to experience spirits (or other invisible beings): trained attention to inner experience, and repeated speech to the invisible other. We also observe that all of these communities model a learning process in which the ability to hear spirit (or invisible others) becomes more skilled with practice, and in which what they hear becomes clearer over time. Practice-including the practice of discernment-is presumed to change experience. We also note that despite these shared cultural ideas and practices, there is considerable individual variation in experience-some of which may reflect psychotic process, and some perhaps not. We suggest that voice-like events in this context may be shaped by cognitive expectation and trained practice as well as an experiential pathway. We also suggest that researchers could explore these common features both as a way to help those struggling with psychosis, and to consider the possibility that expectations and practice may affect the voice-hearing experience.

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.

[Erratic consent and lability of discernment]

Consent and discernment are two important notions, constantly present in the daily life of psychiatric caregivers. The Haute Autorité de santé sheds valuable light on discernment by defining it in terms of five characteristics. As for consent, it is based on the fundamental principle of an agreement given on a proposal with a perception of the stakes by the different parties. The consequences within the multidisciplinary team are multiple, between the information recorded in the shared medical record, the care decisions according to the clinic and the impact on the patients' group. These are all serious ethical and practical difficulties.

"I Didn't Do That!" Event Valence and Child Age Influence Adults' Discernment of Preschoolers' True and False Statements

Justice can hinge on adults' abilities to distinguish accurate from inaccurate child testimony. Yet relatively little is known about factors that affect adults' abilities to determine the accuracy of children's eyewitness reports. In this study, adults (N = 108) viewed videoclips of 3- and 5-year-olds answering open-ended and leading questions about positive and negative actually experienced ("true") events or never experienced ("false") events that the children either affirmed or denied. Analyses revealed that adults were more accurate at determining the veracity of negative compared with positive incidents, particularly when children said that they had experienced the event. Moreover, adults' accuracy was at chance for older children's false denials. Psycholegal implications are discussed.

[Keys for well-being and fulfilment at work]

If organizations seek to be profitable, they have no choice but to help their employees live in harmony, to be serene and creative. Well-being at work is largely linked to our ability to adapt to the moving reality of the company, without losing ourselves. Guides and methods help to live this reality as well as possible.