Does High-Effort Thinking Prevent One From Sharing Misinformation?: An Exploratory Study Among Young Adults

Alka V., Dan Isaac Pothiyil and Syam K. Ravindran
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Alka V.: Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India
Dan Isaac Pothiyil: Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India
Syam K. Ravindran: Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India

International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning (IJCBPL), 2022, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Misinformation has remained challenging in spite of all the innovative strategies and existing regulations. Globally, it has continued to lay a strong grip on society by influencing people’s worldview. Even though the spread of misinformation in the virtual world was majorly investigated as a result of the uncontrollable nature of the medium itself, this study has aimed at understanding the relationship between the need for effortful thinking with the likeliness to share and believe in misinformation by young adults. The study employed a cross sectional design and recruited 384 participants between the ages of 18 and 25 and utilised the Need for cognition scale NCS-6 by Coelho, Hanel, & Wolf, 2018, to measure effortful thinking and a checklist to measure likeliness to share social media messages.The results revealed that high effort thinking in individuals prevents further sharing of misinformation on social media. This study also shed light on the difference in effortful thinking on the basis of religion, education, years of social media usage and location of residence.

Date: 2022
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