Sharing news on networks can impair our judgment about its veracity – 03/04/2023 – Ciência Fundamental

The urge to share news on social media can affect our judgment about the veracity of the posted information, according to a new study published in Science Advances. The results of the online experiment, conducted with 3,157 Americans, were presented this Friday, the 3rd, during the Annual Meeting of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), the largest multidisciplinary scientific society in the world, which takes place in Washington (USA).

Investigating from algorithms to design, more and more research seeks to understand whether the social media environment can have psychological effects that make users more susceptible to believing in false content. In the case of the new study, led by Ziv Epstein, a Ph. Yes.

In the experiment, researchers showed participants headlines and images about Covid-19 and politics. Then, they asked questions about their perception of the accuracy of the content, and whether they would share or express some kind of engagement with this content on the networks.

Those who indicated that they would reproduce the headlines and images were less likely to judge whether the contents represented true facts or not – especially when the question about sharing preceded the one that asked whether they would take into account the accuracy of the information.

For the researchers, the participants’ ability to judge the accuracy of that news may have been altered by the mindset that arises from the idea of ​​sharing content. Users would be too “distracted” by other reasons for passing on information and would neglect accuracy. “It’s not just that people forget to pay attention to accuracy when deciding what to share: their judgment actually gets worse when they also consider what to share,” the scientists say in the written statement.

The evidence found can help in the fight against disinformation on social networks, since they, by their very nature of interaction, encourage the permanent dissemination of content.

The increasing spread of false news in science and health is a matter of concern not only in Brazil, but also in the United States. On Thursday, the 2nd, a new initiative was presented during the AAAS Annual Meeting: the Coalition for Trust in Health & Science, which brings together 50 organizations in the country committed to combating the current infodemic of misinformation in health, medical care, public health and science.

A 2021 study showed that even brief exposure to misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine was already capable of making people less likely to get vaccinated, even in the face of estimates that immunization in the US prevented more than 18 million hospitalizations and more than 3 million deaths.

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Clarice Cudischevitch is a journalist, coordinator of the blog Ciência Fundamental and Communication manager at the Serrapilheira Institute.

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