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False beliefs and "healthy" skepticism: Understanding the multilevel and enduring challenges of misinformation
Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences ; 83(11-A):No Pagination Specified, 2022.
Article in English | APA PsycInfo | ID: covidwho-2011842
ABSTRACT
This dissertation is a study about how people make (mis)informed decisions in the contemporary media environment where there are growing concerns over misinformation, structural inequalities, and the power of platforms. This dissertation addresses two major questions. First, how do beliefs in misinformation develop as a function of multilevel mechanisms, not only as a result of individual identities, preferences, and media diets, but also as a result of mass media structures that impose contextual influences beyond individual choices? Second, how do we foster "healthy" skepticism that helps citizens detect misinformation on social media platforms, while avoiding perpetuating a contentious understanding of fake news that often leads to anti-democratic outcomes? Through four empirical studies, I use quasi-experiment, computational classification of social media and news texts, scale construction, and panel survey experiment to uncover the multilevel and enduring challenges of misinformation. In PART 1 (Chapter 1 & 2), I demonstrate that disparities in local newspaper context across communities uniquely influence people's beliefs about COVID-19 and politics. When living in a community without a local newspaper, people are less certain about and more likely to underestimate COVID-19 prevalence in their community, which in turn are associated with less social distancing. Further, lacking a local newspaper in one's community amplifies partisan selective exposure and makes it more likely for both Democrats and Republicans to believe in false claims made by national in-party elites. Turning from formation of misinformation beliefs to strategies to mitigate misinformation, In PART 2 (Chapter 3 & 4), I show that concerns over social media misinformation are frequently politicized in mainstream broadcast TV news and in Twitter and Facebook utterances. I contend that not all skepticism leads to a better-informed citizenry and theorize two types of skepticism towards social media misinformation accuracy- vs. identity-motivated skepticism. I reveal that while accuracy-motivated skepticism decreases people's susceptibility to partisanship-congruent misinformation they later encounter, identity-motivated skepticism fuels biases in believing in congruent misinformation and makes content moderation by social media platforms less effective. Together, these findings seek to advance theory-building that deepens our understanding of how individuals, communities, and societies face the challenges brought by misinformation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: APA PsycInfo Language: English Journal: Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences Year: 2022 Document Type: Article

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Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: APA PsycInfo Language: English Journal: Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences Year: 2022 Document Type: Article