Descripción del proyecto
Cómo no caer en las noticias falsas
La mayoría de lo que se lee en línea son noticias falsas, bulos destinados a desinformar a los lectores a fin de influir en su punto de vista sobre un tema o para impulsar una agenda política. Las noticias falsas suelen compartirse y difundirse por la web y llegan a millones de personas en poco tiempo. Esto dificulta las acciones destinadas a corregir la desinformación, ya que es más fácil creer la información que encontramos en varias ocasiones. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos MISTRUST estudiará mecanismos de corrección. Propone métodos para convencer a que se pongan en duda las noticias falsas mediante información sobre la fiabilidad de la fuente. Los resultados del proyecto ayudarán a generar políticas sólidas sobre métodos eficaces de combatir las noticias falsas.
Objetivo
Every day a vast amount of misinformation and Fake News are repeated and infinitely shared, reaching millions of people in a short time. The large-scale dissemination of misinformation is one of the major challenges that current societies face, with long-lasting costs to individuals and governments. European Commission’s recent efforts in seeking advice from experts regarding measures to counteract disinformation attest to the urgency of addressing this issue.
The fact that people tend to believe in information they repeatedly encounter and to reject claims that contradict what they heard before makes misinformation-correction very difficult. Since most correction strategies entail both a repetition of the false claims and their contradiction, they ironically end up strengthening the validity of the misinformation they attempt to correct. It is thus of the utmost importance to examine the mechanisms that may contribute to the development of effective misinformation-correction actions.
This proposal contributes to that goal, addressing a novel variable - source (un)trustworthiness - with the potential to influence the effects of repetition and contradiction on perceived information validity. It is hypothesized that providing information about the untrustworthiness of the source of previous false claims will prompt individuals to scrutinize and analyze information more deeply, counteracting the effects of repetition and contradiction (which rely on superficial information processing). This research program will both advance the knowledge in the field and inform future policies to deal with the increasing amount of misinformation that is spread to the public.
The researcher conducting the project has the relevant expertise on both the specific field of research and the appropriate experimental methodologies. Additionally, the Host offers a high-quality research and training environment, and the necessary infrastructure for the successful implementation of the project.
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
1649 026 Lisboa
Portugal