(Press-News.org) University of Cambridge psychologists have developed the first validated “misinformation susceptibility test”: a quick two-minute quiz that gives a solid indication of how vulnerable a person is to being duped by the kind of fabricated news that floods online spaces.
The test, proven to work through a series of experiments involving over 8,000 participants taking place over two years, has been deployed by polling organisation YouGov to determine how susceptible Americans are to fake headlines.
The first survey to use the new 20-point test, called ‘MIST’ by researchers and developed using an early version of ChatGPT, has found that – on average – adult US citizens correctly classified two-thirds (65%) of headlines they were shown as either real or fake.
However, the polling found that younger adults are worse than older adults at identifying false headlines, and that the more time someone spent online recreationally, the less likely they were to be able to tell real news from misinformation.
This runs counter to prevailing public attitudes regarding online misinformation spread, say researchers – that older, less digitally-savvy “boomers” are more likely to be taken in by fake news.
The study presenting the validated MIST is published in the journal Behavior Research Methods, and the polling is released today on the YouGov US website.
Researchers want the public to test themselves: https://yourmist.streamlit.app/. Selecting true or false against 20 headlines gives the user a set of scores and a “resilience” ranking that compares them to the wider US population. It takes under two minutes to complete.
“Misinformation is one of the biggest challenges facing democracies in the digital age,” said Prof Sander van der Linden, senior author of the MIST study, and head of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab.
“We are seeing how online falsehoods create polarised belief systems in major nations, and the consequences, such as the attempted Capitol Hill insurrection.”
“To understand where and how best to fight misinformation, we need a unified way of measuring susceptibility to fake news. That is what our test provides,” said van der Linden, author of the new book Foolproof.
The Cambridge team developed assessment tools that enabled them to work out the right level and mix of fake and genuine headlines to produce the most reliable results.
Examples of real news came from outlets such as the Pew Research Center and Reuters. To create false but confusingly credible headlines – similar to misinformation encountered “in the wild” – in an unbiased way, researchers used artificial intelligence: ChatGPT version 2.
“When we needed a set of convincing but false headlines, we turned to GPT technology. The AI generated thousands of fake headlines in a matter of seconds. As researchers dedicated to fighting misinformation, it was eye-opening and alarming,” said Dr Rakoen Maertens, MIST lead author.
However, another recent study by the same team used GPT to produce useful questions for a variety of psychological surveys. “We encourage our fellow psychologists to embrace AI and help steer the technology in beneficial directions,” said MIST co-author Dr Friedrich Götz.
For the MIST, an international committee of misinformation experts whittled down the true and false headline selections. Variations of the survey were then tested extensively in experiments involving thousands of UK and US participants.
The latest YouGov survey saw 1,516 adult US citizens take the MIST in April 2023, and also respond to questions covering demographics, politics and online behaviour.
When it came to age, only 11% of 18-29 year olds got a high score (over 16 headlines correct), while 36% got a low score (10 headlines or under correct). By contrast, 36% of those 65 or older got a high score, while just 9% of older adults got a low score.
Additionally, the longer someone spent online for fun each day, the greater their susceptibility to misinformation, according to the MIST. Some 30% of those spending 0-2 recreation hours online each day got a high score, compared to just 15% of those spending 9 or more hours online.
The survey also analysed channels through which respondents receive their news. The “legacy media” came out top. For example, over 50% of those who got their news from the Associated Press, or NPR, or newer outlets such as Axios, achieved high scores.
Social media had the news audiences most susceptible to misinformation. Some 53% of those who got news from Snapchat received low scores, with just 4% getting high scores. Truth Social was a close second, followed by WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram.
Democrats performed better than Republicans on the MIST, with 33% of Democrats achieving high scores, compared to just 14% of Republicans. However, almost a quarter of both parties’ followers were in the low-scoring bracket.
Perhaps alarmingly, half of all Americans now say they see what they believe to be misinformation online every day, according to the YouGov poll.
Dr Maertens added: “Younger people increasingly turn to social media to find out about the world, but these channels are awash with misinformation. Approaches to media literacy, as well as algorithms and platform design, require an urgent rethink.”
“The MIST will allow us to verify the effectiveness of interventions to tackle fake news. We want to explore why some people are more resilient to misinformation, and what we can learn from them.”
END
First misinformation susceptibility test finds ‘very online’ Gen Z and millennials are most vulnerable to fake news
2023-06-29
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Clamor of gravitational waves from universe’s merging supermassive black holes ‘heard’ for first time
2023-06-29
Following 15 years of data collection in a galaxy-sized experiment, scientists have “heard” the perpetual chorus of gravitational waves rippling through our universe for the first time — and it’s louder than expected.
The groundbreaking discovery was made by scientists with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) who closely observed stars called pulsars that act as celestial metronomes. The newly detected gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space-time — are by far the most powerful ever measured: They carry roughly a million times as much energy as ...
Gravitational waves from colossal black holes found using 'cosmic clocks'
2023-06-29
You can't see or feel it, but everything around you — including your own body — is slowly shrinking and expanding. It's the weird, spacetime-warping effect of gravitational waves passing through our galaxy, according to a new study by a team of researchers with the U.S. National Science Foundation's NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center.
The findings published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters are from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), a collaborative team of researchers from more than 50 institutions in the U.S. and abroad. The team ...
Scientists use exotic stars to tune into hum from cosmic symphony
2023-06-29
Astrophysicists using large radio telescopes to observe a collection of cosmic clocks in our Galaxy have found evidence for gravitational waves that oscillate with periods of years to decades, according to a set of papers published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The gravitational-wave signal was observed in 15 years of data acquired by the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontiers Center (PFC), a collaboration of more than 190 scientists from the US and Canada who use pulsars ...
Australian astronomers find possible ‘fingerprints’ of gravitational waves
2023-06-29
Astronomers using data collected by CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, have found their strongest evidence yet for low-frequency gravitational waves.
For nearly 20 years the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array collaboration has monitored a set of rapidly spinning stars that pulse like a lighthouse, called pulsars.
They are looking for nanosecond pulse delays caused by gravitational waves to provide further evidence for Einstein’s general theory of relativity and build on our understanding of the Universe.
By ...
Astrophysics collaboration led by Oregon State finds ‘chorus’ of gravitational waves
2023-06-29
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of time-space predicted by Albert Einstein more than a century ago, are permeating the universe at low frequencies, according to a multiyear National Science Foundation project led by Oregon State University scientists.
The findings appear in a collection of five papers authored by researchers from the NANOGrav Physics Frontier Center co-directed by Xavier Siemens, professor of physics in the OSU College of Science.
Evidence of the gravitational waves, whose oscillations are ...
CCNY professor Jacek Dmochowski breaks down science of sports betting
2023-06-29
It’s a dilemma that many a regular bettor probably faces often -- deciding when to place a sports bet. In a study entitled “A statistical theory of optimal decision-making in sports betting,” Jacek Dmochowski, Associate Professor in the Grove School of Engineering at The City College of New York, provides the answer. His original finding appears in the journal PLOS One.
“The central finding of the work is that the objective in sports betting is to estimate the median outcome. Importantly, this is not the same as the average outcome,” said Dmochowski, whose expertise ...
Menopausal hormone therapy linked to increased rate of dementia
2023-06-29
Use of menopausal hormone therapy is associated with an increased rate of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a large Danish study published by The BMJ today.
An increase was seen in long term users of menopausal hormone therapy, but also in short term users around the age of menopause (55 years or younger) as is currently recommended.
These findings align with the largest clinical trial carried out on this topic, and the researchers call for further studies “to explore if the observed association in this study between menopausal hormone therapy use and increased risk of dementia illustrates a causal ...
THE LANCET: Opioid pain relievers do not reduce acute lower back and neck pain, study suggests
2023-06-29
Peer-reviewed / Randomised Controlled Trial / People
A randomised controlled trial including 347 participants with lower back or neck pain found there was no benefit of taking opioid pain relievers compared to placebo.
There was no significant difference in pain scores between those given opioid pain relievers and those given placebo after six weeks; while patients given the placebo had slightly lower pain scores after a year.
The authors warn that there is no evidence that opioids should be prescribed ...
More doctors in England and Wales choosing to retire early
2023-06-29
Increasing numbers of doctors are opting to take voluntary early retirement, rather than waiting to claim their pension at retirement age, official figures show.
Figures provided to The BMJ by the NHS Business Services Authority under a freedom of information request show that the number of GPs and hospital doctors in England and Wales opting for voluntary early retirement has increased by an average of 9.3% year on year, rising from 376 in 2008 to 1424 in 2023.
Over the same period, the number retiring on the basis of age has fallen, from 2030 in 2008 to 1721 in 2023.
The rise in early retirement was seen for hospital doctors and GPs. The number of hospital doctors ...
Opioids no more effective than placebo for acute back and neck pain
2023-06-29
Opioid pain-relieving medicines are not more effective than a placebo in relieving acute back and neck pain and may even cause harm, according to a world-first trial led by the University of Sydney.
The researchers say this is proof that treatment guidelines should be updated to advise against the use of opioids for this purpose.
Over 577 million people worldwide experience low back and neck pain at any one time.
Despite a global push to reduce the use of opioids, in Australia approximately 40 to 70 percent of those who present with neck and back complaints are prescribed opioids for their pain.
The OPAL trial recruited close ...