Fact or Fiction? Study Explores Information in the Digital Age
Elmira, NY (10/13/2020) — A special issue of the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research includes an article co-authored by Dr. Chris Terry, Associate Professor of Psychology, and recent Elmira College graduates, Andreas Endresen '20, Amanda Campbell '19, and Bridget Torresson '19.
The report, "Sorting Fact from Fiction without Source Evaluation is a 50-50 Guess in the Disinformation Age," is the first article in the issue. The article is particularly relevant to the current election season and concerns about disinformation in the news.
"We challenged 122 college students to take a quiz in which they had to distinguish between true and fake news stories without being able to verify the source that originally published each story," explained Dr. Terry. "Our participants performed no better than chance, suggesting that the fake stories, all of which circulated on the Internet sometime during 2017-2018, presented quite plausible disinformation. To the researchers, this finding reinforces the importance of checking sources. Is the story being published by a reputable news agency? Or, is the story posted on an unfamiliar website that may not be reputable? Furthermore, the vast majority of our participants reported getting their news primarily through social media, meaning that quickly scrolling headlines could be problematic if disreputable sources start appearing in one's news feed."
The study, which was conducted while Endresen, Campbell and Torresson were completing their undergraduate degree in psychology at EC, is available online.
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A special issue of the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research includes an article co-authored by Dr. Chris Terry, Associate Professor of Psychology, and recent Elmira College graduates, Andreas Endresen ‘20, Amanda Campbell ‘19, and Bridget Torresson ‘19.