What do false reporters actually do?

As social psychologists, I study how our identities, relationships, and group affiliations shape the way in which we interpret information, particularly misinformation. Whether it’s false headlines, viral rumors, or manipulated images, our social environment plays a powerful role in shaping what we accept or reject as truth as falsehoods. How does classical psychological research stimulate my current work? And how does understanding our social context help us navigate a world filled with doubtful claims and misinformation?

Solomon Asch Conformity Research An experiment was conducted in the 1950s to show how people are influenced by the opinions of the group, even if those opinions are wrong. One of his classic studies concerns a group of people who view the line, and was then asked to match the length of the line to one of the other three lines. The answer was clear, but in the group only one real participant was. Others were actors who were intentionally told to give the wrong answer. When all the actors gave the wrong answers, the real participants often went with the group, despite knowing that the answer was wrong.

As an undergraduate, I studied psychology and I was fascinated by Ash. Fits Research from learning about them. I was also psychologically interested bias It affected both me and the people around me. This curiosity ultimately led me to graduate school. It focused on studying how social and psychological processes shape our beliefs and behaviors. As a graduate student, I published the paper Exploring the relationship between social networks and the strength of beliefs. We have found that only one person with different political or religious views in our network significantly weakens the strength of certain beliefs, particularly those associated with America. Politics and Christianity.

Over the past few years I have studied how various social and psychological factors influence sensitivity to misinformation. Misinformation is a broad umbrella term that refers to false or misleading information, regardless of intent. Hoax, fraud, deepfake, propaganda, and Fake news It’s all types of misinformation. Misinformation is a semester that has been studied in the social sciences for decades. for example, Incorrect information effects It gained much popularity in psychology in the 1980s, dealing with how exposure to false or misleading information can bias what we remember from a particular event. This phenomenon connects to a broader literature on psychological bias and information processing.

In an article from 2024, I studied how individual networks predicted beliefs. Misreport. My research asked both Democrats and Republicans to read short political rumours that made their political groups look better or worse (Democrats or Republicans were bullied or helped someone). I also asked them to read completely fake news headlines that denigrated their opposing political groups. For example, the headingDonald Trump Jr. Social Media And attacked prominent Republicans, which were fully constructed. It turns out that both Democrats and Republicans are more likely to believe and share these crafted rumors and false news stories when they support political groups or attack against them. We also found that there is one person in your network, simply by significantly reducing the likelihood that your network would believe and share these types of misinformation. Finally, this study found that when people’s social networks are more uniform, they tend to feel a stronger connection with their politics Identityand this can reinforce biased beliefs about their political groups and those seen as opposed to them.

While I’m studying Misreport On a broader level, a more specific way to explain my research is to study how social identity and personal networks influence information processing. decision making. We are social creatures, so we have motivation To protect our social identity, this can be biased towards interpreting information in a way that supports it, even if it is not entirely accurate. This applies to all social identities, and sports fandom is a good example. You can think of how the referee is likely to believe he made a bad call to our favorite team. Political identities can affect many kinds of information and they have clear groups and outgroups in the US, making it very easy to study in social sciences!

My research is not about censoring people or dictating what they should believe. I don’t try to work with social media companies to regulate content. Instead, my job focuses on understanding how our social connections and identities shape the way information is processed. Understanding these processes will help you make better decisions in an increasingly complex information environment. My latest work focuses on teaching these skills directly through media and digital literacy.

My colleague and I created a WhatsApp-inspired game Where to learn how to identify hoaxes and scams you might see online (such as financial fraud and rumors about urban wildlife). We found it People who played our game became more cautious about fatty fake headlines and their online sharing behavior. Another recent studytaught people how to better recognize manipulated images online. This work falls widely under the umbrella of “misinformation research,” with the ultimate goal of allowing individuals to critically evaluate information they encounter online.

In a world where false or misleading information spreads faster than ever, understanding the psychology behind belief and prejudice is more than an academic exercise, and it is a practical need. My research doesn’t involve censoring or controlling what people think. It is to understand the very human powers that shape our beliefs, and how we better equip ourselves and deal with each other. By acknowledging the effects of our social identities, personal networks, and psychological blind spots, we can become more thoughtful information consumers. Understanding our psychological biases, strengthening our media and digital literacy allows us to resist suitability and misinformation pull, make more informed decisions, engage in more thoughtful conversations, and better understand the world around us.

This article is also featured in Misguided: The Newsletter.