Reducing Misperceptions Via Social Media

Date: 

Wednesday, October 21, 2020, 11:00am to 12:00pm

Location: 

Online

Part of the speaker series on misinformation, co-sponsored by the NULab at Northeastern University.

Social media platforms have struggled to address misinformation circulating on their platforms. It seems unlikely that they will be able to rid these digital spaces of misinformation altogether, which means that there is a need to provide corrective information. This talk will review research on reducing misperceptions via social media. In particular, the talk will emphasize the need to think about attention and identity. In a crowded social media environment, those wishing to correct misperceptions must find ways to do so that gain attention and promote recall. Further, messages are more readily believed when they cohere with existing beliefs. Successfully countering misinformation requires figuring out ways to overcome ideological attachments. Stroud’s research, in collaboration with researchers at the Center for Media Engagement, Facebook, fact-checking organizations, and the Poynter Institute, demonstrates that the content of corrective information can influence the extent to which people pay attention to and recall fact-checks, as well as what people ultimately believe.

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