New Media Challenges Lecture 10: Correcting Misinformation

Flashcards on misinformation, its spread, and correction techniques, based on lecture notes from Martin Tanis' New Media Challenges Lecture 10.

Misinformation

False information that is disseminated, regardless of intent to mislead.

Disinformation

Misinformation that is deliberately disseminated to mislead.

Fake news

False information, often of a sensational nature, that mimics news media content.

Continued influence effect

The continued reliance on inaccurate information in people's memory and reasoning after a credible correction has been presented.

Illusory truth effect

Repeated information is more likely to be judged true than novel information because it has become more familiar.

Consensus Gap

The gap between the public perception and what is true (for instance, the consensus on climate change).

Disinformation Campaigns

Designed to confuse, overwhelm, fatigue, disengage, polarize, divide, sow uncertainty, challenge the notion that truth is knowable

Confirmation Bias

People like information that is in line with their previous ideas and dislike counterintuitive information.

Reconstructive Memory

States that our memories are not like recording devices, they are fallible and reconstructive.

Prebunking

Warning people that they might be misinformed or that the media sometimes does not check facts before publishing information that turns out to be inaccurate.

Ineffective Retractions

Retractions of misinformation are often ineffective because once misinformation is communicated it is nearly impossible to 'take it back'.

Gap and Fill Strategy

Create a gap with a retraction and fill the gap with a factual alternative.

Familiarity Backfire Effect

Repeating a myth when retracting it makes it more familiar. People remember and believe familiar things.

Overkill Backfire Effect

A simple myth is more cognitively attractive than an over-complicated correction.

Worldview Backfire Effect

If people have strong attitudes and beliefs, they will be more skeptical about attitude-incongruent misinformation and its source. Efforts are most successfully targeted towards the undecided majority.

Boomerang Effect Polarization

When an attempt to correct a dearly held misbelief can cause stronger misbelief.