 Susceptibility to misinformation: a study of climate change, Covid-19, and artificial intelligenceNo x8efq, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science Abstract: This study explores whether susceptibility to misinformation is context dependent. We conduct a survey experiment in which subjects had to rate the reliability of several statements in the fields of climate change, Covid-19, and artificial intelligence. There is some evidence for a monological belief system, i.e., being susceptible to one statement containing misinformation is correlated with falling to other false news stories, in all three contexts. The main findings to explain the susceptibility to misinformation can be summarized as follows: trust in social networks is positively associated with falling for misinformation in all contexts. There are also several context-related differences: Individuals are less likely to be susceptible to misinformation in the contexts of climate change and Covid-19 if they have a higher risk perception, tend to take a second look at a problem (i.e., willingness to think deliberately), update their prior beliefs to new evidence (actively open-minded thinking), and trust in science and mass media. Within the context of artificial intelligence, being less prone to conspiracy theories in general and lower subjective knowledge helps not to be susceptible to misinformation. Date: 2021-01-07 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:x8efq Access Statistics for this paper More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.