Effects of inductive learning and gamification on news veracity discernment
Effects of inductive learning and gamification on news veracity discernment
This pre-registered study tests a novel psychological intervention to improve news veracity discernment. The main intervention involved inductive learning (IL) training (i.e., practice discriminating between multiple true and fake news exemplars with feedback) with or without gamification. Participants (N = 282 Prolific users) were randomly assigned to either a gamified IL intervention, a non-gamified version of the same IL intervention, a no-treatment control group, or a Bad News intervention, a notable web-based game designed to tackle online misinformation. Following the intervention (if applicable), all participants rated the veracity of a novel set of news headlines. We hypothesized that the gamified intervention would be the most effective for improving news veracity discernment, followed by its non-gamified equivalent, then Bad News, and finally the control group. The results were analyzed with receiver operating characteristic curve analyses, which has previously never been applied to news veracity discernment. The analyses indicated that there were no significant differences between conditions and the Bayes factor indicated very strong evidence for the null. This finding raises questions about the effectiveness of current psychological interventions and contradicts prior research that has supported the efficacy of Bad News. Age, gender, and political leaning all predicted news veracity discernment.
online misinformation, fake news, inductive learning, category learning, gamification
599–619
Modirrousta-Galian, A.
5b7bbe48-7221-47e6-bc12-7c8940eb3247
Higham, P.A.
4093b28f-7d58-4d18-89d4-021792e418e7
Seabrooke, T.
bf0d9ea5-8cf7-494b-9707-891762fce6c3
2023
Modirrousta-Galian, A.
5b7bbe48-7221-47e6-bc12-7c8940eb3247
Higham, P.A.
4093b28f-7d58-4d18-89d4-021792e418e7
Seabrooke, T.
bf0d9ea5-8cf7-494b-9707-891762fce6c3
Modirrousta-Galian, A., Higham, P.A. and Seabrooke, T.
(2023)
Effects of inductive learning and gamification on news veracity discernment.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 29 (3), .
(doi:10.1037/xap0000458).
Abstract
This pre-registered study tests a novel psychological intervention to improve news veracity discernment. The main intervention involved inductive learning (IL) training (i.e., practice discriminating between multiple true and fake news exemplars with feedback) with or without gamification. Participants (N = 282 Prolific users) were randomly assigned to either a gamified IL intervention, a non-gamified version of the same IL intervention, a no-treatment control group, or a Bad News intervention, a notable web-based game designed to tackle online misinformation. Following the intervention (if applicable), all participants rated the veracity of a novel set of news headlines. We hypothesized that the gamified intervention would be the most effective for improving news veracity discernment, followed by its non-gamified equivalent, then Bad News, and finally the control group. The results were analyzed with receiver operating characteristic curve analyses, which has previously never been applied to news veracity discernment. The analyses indicated that there were no significant differences between conditions and the Bayes factor indicated very strong evidence for the null. This finding raises questions about the effectiveness of current psychological interventions and contradicts prior research that has supported the efficacy of Bad News. Age, gender, and political leaning all predicted news veracity discernment.
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Accepted Manuscript
- Accepted Manuscript
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2023 JEPA Accepted Manuscript
- Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 13 September 2022
Published date: 2023
Keywords:
online misinformation, fake news, inductive learning, category learning, gamification
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 470567
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/470567
ISSN: 1076-898X
PURE UUID: 43b3259d-1080-48d8-9f5e-d684f31fefb3
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Date deposited: 13 Oct 2022 16:36
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:03
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Author:
A. Modirrousta-Galian
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