Categorias: Todos - emotions - cognition - reasoning - investigation

por Khaled Essam 5 anos atrás

187

People's Beliefs

People believe fake news for several reasons, primarily due to a combination of cognitive and emotional factors. Those with lower critical thinking abilities, such as individuals inclined towards religious fundamentalism, delusional thinking, or dogmatism, are more susceptible to accepting false information.

People's Beliefs

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/19/opinion/sunday/fake-news.html

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/01/why-smart-people-are-more-likely-to-believe-fake-news

Why Do People Believe Fake News?

Cognitive dissonance

Different Ideas
people tend to believe ideas that support their beliefs
empirical evidence presents data that defies people's beliefs
People are less likely to change their political beliefs
people who changed their beliefs

less BOLD signal in the insula and the amygdala

people who greatly resisted these ideas

increased response in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and decreased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex

shows how emotions affects our reasoning

Main characteristics of those who believe in fake news

Low in three kinds of people
- Religious fundamentalists - People who are inclined to delusional thinking - People who are inclined to dogmatism
Open mindedness
People are more willing to find and accept new idea that could contradict their beliefs
Critical thinking
The intellectual ability to reason ideas

Ways to stop believing fake news

Fact checking websites
Be investigative
How do you know that is true?

Cognitive Simplicity

The human mind isn't usually skeptic
The belief comes to the mind

Cognitive laziness

People fail to use their ability of critical thinking to be able to determine the truth from the fake news

Reporter's ability to change facts makes fake news believable

Fake news are entertaining to people

Alters emotions which makes people more likely to believe

Fake news are unroll at a faster than real news

In Late April 2013, the Associated Press' (AP) Twitter account surprised its millions of followers after it tweeted that an explosion at the White House injured President Barack Obama. It garnered over 4000 retweets and became one of the most expensive tweets in history after it caused the stock prices to drop. While stock markets rebounded as soon as the tweet was confirmed to be fake, the damage had been done - it cost over $130 billion in stock value losses.

Rationalization

People use their intellectual abilities to remain believing what they want instead of finding the truth

Tribal unity

The opportunity to be part of the group

Crossfire Effect

Some people hold on more to their beliefs when they are presented with evidence that denies it.