Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, 68131, Mannheim, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, 0373, Oslo, Norway.
Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2020 Nov 11;5(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s41235-020-00251-4.
To better understand the spread of fake news in the Internet age, it is important to uncover the variables that influence the perceived truth of information. Although previous research identified several reliable predictors of truth judgments-such as source credibility, repeated information exposure, and presentation format-little is known about their simultaneous effects. In a series of four experiments, we investigated how the abovementioned factors jointly affect the perceived truth of statements (Experiments 1 and 2) and simulated social media postings (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 1 explored the role of source credibility (high vs. low vs. no source information) and presentation format (with vs. without a picture). In Experiments 2 and 3, we additionally manipulated repeated exposure (yes vs. no). Finally, Experiment 4 examined the role of source credibility (high vs. low) and type of repetition (congruent vs. incongruent vs. no repetition) in further detail. In sum, we found no effect of presentation format on truth judgments, but strong, additive effects of source credibility and repetition. Truth judgments were higher for information presented by credible sources than non-credible sources and information without sources. Moreover, congruent (i.e., verbatim) repetition increased perceived truth whereas semantically incongruent repetition decreased perceived truth, irrespectively of the source. Our findings show that people do not rely on a single judgment cue when evaluating a statement's truth but take source credibility and their meta-cognitive feelings into account.
为了更好地理解互联网时代假新闻的传播，揭示影响信息可信度感知的变量至关重要。尽管先前的研究已经确定了一些可靠的真假判断预测因素，如信息来源可信度、信息重复曝光和呈现格式等，但这些因素的综合影响还知之甚少。在一系列四项实验中，我们调查了上述因素如何共同影响陈述的可信度感知（实验 1 和 2）和模拟社交媒体帖子（实验 3 和 4）。实验 1 探讨了信息来源可信度（高可信度 vs. 低可信度 vs. 无来源信息）和呈现格式（有图片 vs. 无图片）的作用。在实验 2 和 3 中，我们还额外操纵了重复曝光（有重复曝光 vs. 无重复曝光）。最后，实验 4 更详细地考察了信息来源可信度（高可信度 vs. 低可信度）和重复类型（一致重复 vs. 不一致重复 vs. 无重复）的作用。总的来说，我们发现呈现格式对真假判断没有影响，但信息来源可信度和重复曝光有很强的、累加的影响。信息来源可信度高的陈述比可信度低的陈述和无来源的陈述被认为更真实。此外，一致重复（即逐字重复）增加了感知的真实性，而语义不一致重复则降低了感知的真实性，而与来源无关。我们的研究结果表明，人们在评估陈述的真实性时不会依赖单一的判断线索，而是会考虑信息来源可信度和他们的元认知感受。
