Misinformation identification as a digital literacy skill in an ultra-orthodox community: an eye tracking study

Nili Steinfeld (), Tamar Berenblum, Yehudit Miletzky and Elazar Kornfeld
Additional contact information
Nili Steinfeld: Ariel University
Tamar Berenblum: Haredi Institute for Public Affairs
Yehudit Miletzky: Haredi Institute for Public Affairs
Elazar Kornfeld: Haredi Institute for Public Affairs

Palgrave Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Online misinformation can provoke social disputes, promote the normalization of prejudice, and bias social perceptions of social groups. In Israel, where society is already polarized, exposure to misinformation could exacerbate existing tensions between the ultra-orthodox (Haredi) and the general population. Furthermore, the low digital literacy of the Haredi population presumably makes them more vulnerable to the influence of misinformation. This study compared the ability of Haredi and non-Haredi Jews to detect misinformation, while examining the relationship between misinformation detection and digital literacy and knowledge. 83 Jewish participants (Haredi and non-Haredi) evaluated the credibility of online news articles. Eye tracking technology was used to examine participants’ scan patterns and attention to information metadata. The results showed that Haredi participants were less successful in identifying false messages and less attentive to metadata. However, when combined with other predictors in multivariate regression, Haredi became a non-significant predictor, and digital knowledge and activity on social networks were found to be significant and strong predictors of misinformation identification. In terms of digital literacy, while there was no difference in subjective assessment, the study found a significant gap between the two populations in terms of psychophysiological behavioral indices (i.e., scan patterns) and digital knowledge. The implications of such dramatic differences in skills and the vulnerability to false messages of a secluded, disadvantaged population, as well as the need to invest resources to increase digital literacy among the Haredi population to reduce these gaps, are discussed.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-04938-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04938-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04938-1

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().