Project description
Equipping adolescents with the skills to detect digital disinformation
The widespread access to digital media, the Internet of Things, and electronics, particularly among adolescents, has made social media a primary source of information for many users. Unfortunately, the growing presence of disinformation and the lack of measures to combat it by large media platforms have made adolescents increasingly susceptible to false information. The ERC-funded DISINFORMED TEENS project will provide a comprehensive analysis of adolescent susceptibility to disinformation, addressing the current lack of data on this issue and the methods for improving resilience in youth. The project aims to develop tools and methodologies to promote critical thinking and truth discernment among adolescents.
Objective
Disinformation is a growing and pervasive problem in modern society. Adolescents spend over 6.5 hours per day on their smartphones and many use social media as a primary information source. There is ample indication in the developmental science literature that adolescents might be particularly susceptible to disinformation. Yet surprisingly little is known about how susceptibility to disinformation changes throughout adolescence and how we might foster youths resilience against disinformation. Here I propose an innovative research program to develop the first comprehensive account of susceptibility to disinformation during adolescence. With this fundamental knowledge, I will develop new instruments to promote truth discernment in youths, which are urgently needed in todays digital era. While many prior developmental studies rely on self-reported online activities, the proposed research will innovate this field by gaining deep and objective insights by applying natural language models to adolescents social media data, computational models of reinforcement learning and decision-making in novel experimental paradigms, and network analyses to capture the interplay between risk factors. This approach will gain novel and necessary insights into: 1. the types of (dis)information that adolescents encounter on social media. 2. How persuasion techniques affect adolescents' veracity judgements and information sharing decisions. 3. The learning processes that underlie social influence and impact adolescents veracity judgements and information sharing decisions. 4. The individual differences which make adolescents more susceptible to disinformation and extreme views. The findings will result in a comprehensive, fundamental understanding of adolescents susceptibility to disinformation, including risk factor contexts, and the first evidence-based educational program against disinformation tailored to youths age specific needs.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications mobile phones
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
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