Aging in an Era of Fake News

Datos Bibliográficos

ID19604367
AutoresNadia M Brashier (0000-0001-8039-9477, Harvard University, autor de correspondencia), Daniel L Schacter (0000-0002-2460-6061, Harvard University)
Año2020
Volumen29
Número3
Páginas316-323
Fecha de publicación2020-05-19
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCurrent Directions in Psychological Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0963-7214 • E-ISSN: 1467-8721
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0963721420915872
PMID32968336
OpenAlexW3027830295
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas112
Referencias citadas47

Misinformation causes serious harm, from sowing doubt in modern medicine to inciting violence. Older adults are especially susceptible - they shared the most fake news during the 2016 US election. The most intuitive explanation for this pattern blames cognitive deficits. While older adults forget where they learned information, fluency remains intact and decades of accumulated knowledge helps them evaluate claims. Thus, cognitive declines cannot fully explain older adults' engagement with fake news. Late adulthood also involves social changes, including general trust, difficulty detecting lies, and less emphasis on accuracy when communicating. In addition, older adults are relative newcomers to social media, who may struggle to spot sponsored content or manipulated images. In a post-truth world, interventions should consider older adults' shifting social goals and gaps in their digital literacy

Blame · Cognition · Fake news · Harm · Internet privacy · Literacy · Misinformation · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Social cognition · Social media · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Mental Health via Writing · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Psychology