Children and young people are increasingly confronted with fake news on social media. “But children still do not have enough media literacy to look critically at such messages,” says Katinka Dijkstra of the Brain & Cognition team. That is why Dijkstra and her colleagues and students developed the quiz ‘Fake News Unmasked’ to investigate whether children can distinguish between real and fake news and which factors play a role in this. In addition, children learn in a playful way how to look critically at media and recognize fake news.
We are inundated with fake news and misinformation, but our brain needs help recognizing this. This has to do with various psychological mechanisms. For example, if a message affects you emotionally or something sounds plausible, you are more likely to believe the information. “People tend to select information that supports their beliefs. This is also called confirmation bias,” Dijkstra explains.
Children are more sensitive to fake news
Everyone comes into contact with fake news, both young and old. Research has shown that children and older adults are more sensitive to misinformation than young adults. Older adults sometimes forget details or the source of their information, making it difficult for them to judge whether something is true. “Children, on the other hand, are more vulnerable to fake news than adults because they still have to learn to think critically,” Dijkstra explains. Using the quiz, Dijkstra examines children aged 8 to 10 years and 11 to 15 years old. If successful, the research contributes to strengthening resilience in young people and thus ties in with the strategy of ESSB on the theme of the same name.
Quiz as an educational tool
“We mainly chose a quiz because children enjoy completing an assignment playfully, such as a quiz.” Dijkstra also explains that a quiz gives a lot of room to use various materials from different sources to develop different quiz formats for different age groups. For example, interim feedback on the answers could lead to better results later in the quiz. Dijkstra also suggests that a quiz can be a good starting point for parents to start a conversation with their children. “I have talked to many parents, and they often indicate they need ways to start conversations with their children about fake news.”
Strategies to make people fall for fake news
In the quiz, children between the ages of 8 and 10 play an internet police officer who has to catch ‘mean spies’ trying to fool other people. They are then shown news items and must indicate whether they are real or fake. In the quiz for children between the ages of 11 and 15, children must assess the credibility of news items.
The researchers apply various fake news strategies in the quiz components. “These are the same strategies that people who spread disinformation also use, such as impersonation, polarization and using emotional words,” Dijkstra explains. With impersonation, you pretend to be someone else, for example, your father or a pop star. Polarization is widely used to spread fake news, just like in politics. They then deliberately try to pit people against each other, such as parents versus children or boys versus girls. Another strategy is to use emotional words, such as very negative (“deeply sad”) or wildly exaggerated words (“terribly”, “insane”). “Fake news often triggers your emotions. If it affects you personally, you are more likely to assume it is true,” Dijkstra explains.
Unmasking fake news
Unmasking fake news can be pretty tricky. Dijkstra explains that this has to do with the ‘continued influence effect’, among other things. “You store information that you read or hear. If it turns out that the information is incorrect, the fake news can still stick. Fake news cannot simply be erased and replaced.” Debunking fake news is, therefore, not always possible by simply providing the correct information. It is even more complicated if the correct data is not convincing or too tricky. “People prefer to believe a simple explanation. So if the fake news sounds very plausible, people will often be more likely to believe this message than the correct, but more complicated, message,” Dijkstra explains.
It is essential to warn people about the existence of fake news. Playing games, such as a quiz, may effectively explain fake news strategies. During the Weekend of Science, the researchers will collect data to obtain empirical support for such assumptions. If it turns out that the quiz helps to create a more critical awareness in children, Dijkstra and her colleagues hope that schools will eventually integrate the quiz into their curriculum.
Earlier this year, Dijkstra and her colleagues participated in Science Live at the NEMO Science Museum. In this program, researchers conduct scientific research with NEMO visitors as test subjects. It is a great opportunity for researchers to study large groups of test subjects with diverse backgrounds. With more than 700,000 visitors annually, NEMO is an ideal location for scientific research.
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Contact: Britt van Sloun, redactie en communicatie ESSB, vansloun@essb.eur.nl
