Thinking clearly about misinformation
Open accessAbstract
In Western societies, misinformation concern is at an all-time high. Recently, however, debate has ensued regarding the level of concern that is warranted. Some researchers note the potential for misinformation to incur significant costs on individuals and societies, and call for interventions to reduce misinformation susceptibility and impacts 1 , 2 . Others warn against alarmist narratives, arguing that misinformation exerts only limited influence over beliefs and behaviours. This view proposes that problematic behaviours, such as vaccine hesitancy, are caused by systemic socio-economic and psycho-social issues, and thus calls for interventions to target those societal issues rather than misinformation creation and consumption, which represent only symptoms of these deeper issues 3 . Similarly, assuming low prevalence of misinformation, researchers have argued that interventions should focus on increasing trust in factual information 4 .
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The strategies proposed by both perspectives on misinformation are not mutually exclusive.
“However, the strategies proposed by both perspectives on misinformation are not mutually exclusive (Tay et al., 2024).”
From Learning to evaluate sources of science (mis)information on the internet: Assessing students' scientific online reasoning (2025) · cites this paper as Tay et al., 2024
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Cites
Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA
Loomba, S., de Figueiredo, A., Piatek, S. J., de Graaf, K., & Larson, H. J. (2021) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01056-1 · Cited by 1,800 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Some studies will fi nd misinformation has minimal effects, others may suggest the opposite 9 — as a generalization, both characterizations will be inaccurate unless quali fi ed with explicit recognition of heterogeneity.”
BackgroundThe psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction
Ecker, U. K. H., Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Schmid, P., Fazio, L. K., Brashier, N., Kendeou, P., Vraga, E. K., & Amazeen, M. A. (2022) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-021-00006-y · Cited by 1,372 · cited 2× · see citing works
“The repetitional aspect relates to the well-known fi nding that repeated and thus familiar information is more likely judged to be true regardless of veracity 1 .”
BackgroundSelf-citationA systematic review of worldwide causal and correlational evidence on digital media and democracy
Lorenz-Spreen, P., Oswald, L., Lewandowsky, S., & Hertwig, R. (2022) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-022-01460-1 · Cited by 348 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Observational and experimental studies have demonstrated that misinformation can causally alter beliefs and behaviours 1,6 , even though measurement of misinformation impacts is often impeded by ethical considerations (e.g. exposing individuals to potentially harmful misinformation) or lack of…”
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Research works printed but not linked: 10
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Sorted by citations
Pimentel, D. R. (2025) · Journal of Research in Science Teaching · doi:10.1002/tea.21974 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
- Authors
- Tay, L. Q., Lewandowsky, S., Hurlstone, M. J., Kurz, T., & Ecker, U. K. H.
- Affiliations
- Australian National University (AU)
- University of Potsdam (DE)
- Lancaster University (GB)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Tay, Li Qian
- Venue
- Communications Psychology
- Published
- 2024-01-05
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 4-4
- ISSN
- 2731-9121 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11332083
- OpenAlex
- W4390616380
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 10
- FWCI
- 15.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communications Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- European Commission (HORIZON2020, 101094752, 101020961)
- Volkswagen Foundation
- Australian Research Council (FT190100708)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Keywords
- misinformation, alarmism, vaccine hesitancy, misinformation interventions, social problems, belief revision
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