False memory and COVID-19: How people fall for fake news about COVID-19 in digital contexts

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Ivan Mangiulli¹  Fabiana Battista²  Nadja Abdel Kafi³  Eline Coveliers²  Theodore Carlson Webster⁴  Antonietta Curci¹  Henry Otgaar² 

[1] Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro;Faculty of Law and Criminology, Leuven Institute of Criminology;Forensic Psychology Section, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University;School of Applied Sciences, Psychology, Edinburgh Napier University

关键词: false memories;    COVID-19;    fake news;    Conspiratorial Content;    individual differences;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2022.972004

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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% (n = 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%; n = 185/337). Moreover, in Experiment 2, participants with conspiracy beliefs were significantly 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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY