Mangiulli Ivan, Battista Fabiana, Kafi Nadja Abdel, Coveliers Eline, Webster Theodore Carlson, Curci Antonietta, Otgaar Henry
Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
Faculty of Law and Criminology, Leuven Institute of Criminology, Leuven, Belgium.
Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 13;13:972004. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.972004. eCollection 2022.
People are often exposed to fake news. Such an exposure to misleading information might lead to false memory creation. We examined whether people can form false memories for COVID-19-related fake news. Furthermore, we investigated which individual factors might predict false memory formation for fake news. In two experiments, we provided participants with two pieces of COVID-19-related fake news along with a non-probative photograph. In Experiment 1, 41% ( = 66/161) of our sample reported at least one false memory for COVID-19-related fake news. In Experiment 2, even a higher percentage emerged (54.9%; = 185/337). Moreover, in Experiment 2, participants with conspiracy beliefs were more likely to report false memories for fake news than those without such beliefs, irrespective of the conspiratorial nature of the materials. Finally, while well-being was found to be positively associated with both true and false memories (Experiment 1), only analytical thinking was negatively linked to the vulnerability to form false memories for COVID-19-related fake news (Experiment 2). Overall, our data demonstrated that false memories can occur following exposure to fake news about COVID-19, and that governmental and social media interventions are needed to increase individuals' discriminability between true and false COVID-19-related news.
人们经常接触到假新闻。这种对误导性信息的接触可能会导致虚假记忆的形成。我们研究了人们是否会对与新冠病毒相关的假新闻形成虚假记忆。此外,我们还调查了哪些个体因素可能预测对假新闻的虚假记忆形成。在两项实验中,我们为参与者提供了两条与新冠病毒相关的假新闻以及一张无关的照片。在实验1中,我们样本中的41%(=66/161)报告至少对一条与新冠病毒相关的假新闻有虚假记忆。在实验2中,出现了更高的比例(54.9%;=185/337)。此外,在实验2中,有阴谋论信念的参与者比没有这种信念的参与者更有可能报告对假新闻的虚假记忆,无论材料的阴谋性质如何。最后,虽然幸福感被发现与真实和虚假记忆都呈正相关(实验1),但只有分析性思维与对与新冠病毒相关的假新闻形成虚假记忆的易感性呈负相关(实验2)。总体而言,我们的数据表明,接触关于新冠病毒的假新闻后可能会出现虚假记忆,并且需要政府和社交媒体进行干预,以提高个人对与新冠病毒相关真假新闻的辨别能力。