People Who Trust Science Are Less Likely To Fall For Misinformation — Unless It Sounds Sciencey

By Matthew Warren “Trust in the science” is the kind of refrain commonly uttered by well-meaning individuals looking to promote positive, scientifically-backed change, such as encouraging action against climate change or improving uptake of vaccines. The hope is that if people are encouraged to trust science, they will not be duped by those who are promoting the opposite agenda — one which often flies in the face of scientific evidence. But are people actually less likely to fall for misinformation when they have trust in science? Yes and no, according to a new a study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Thomas C O’Brien and colleagues from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign find that people with greater trust in science are generally less likely to believe misinformation. But when that misinformation is presented with scientific-sounding content to back it up, they become more easily duped by it. In the first study, 532 online participants read an article about the “Valza virus”, which stated that the virus had been created as a bioweapon in a government lab and subsequently covered up. The article was written informally, in a style meant to imitate real online posts made by conspiracy theorists. In one condition, the article cited scientists who said that studies in their own lab proved that there had been a conspiracy; in the other, the article instead quoted activists. Participants then answered questions about how much ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cognition Source Type: blogs