Periodic Reporting for period 1 - News in groups (Group effects of news evaluation in social media)
Período documentado: 2021-09-01 hasta 2024-08-31
Group effects of information evaluation in social media
Humans are inherently social creatures; we evolved to live in groups and our brains have developed to thrive in social environments. In information sharing we use complex communication to share important information to foster development, innovation and wellbeing in our group. Although reliable and verified information should be preferred, we sometimes share information that we do not completely trust but which are novel, important or interesting. Social and neurocognitive mechanisms such as the need to belong are powerful target points, which could be triggered to propagate information, true or false. Particularly, social media exploits these mechanisms as they directly offer tools for social interaction such sharing and liking messages. Although such features seem to mimic social behaviour in real life and may activate brain areas of reward, mentalising, or self-referential cognition, open questions remain in how news is perceived and shared in different social contexts. The goal of this project is to reveal the neural mechanisms underlying the interactive process of news evaluation and sharing them in a group. The innovation in this project is 1) to combine the research fields of neuroscience, psychology, media, computer and learning sciences to study social interactions regarding news sharing, 2) applying the concept of group awareness to the case of news evaluation and test the use of group awareness tools and 3) benefitting from researcher’s strong expertise in multivariate brain imaging data analysis for studying the neural mechanisms of information sharing in groups. Specifically, the project focuses on four research questions: 1) which factors contribute to evaluating and sharing news 2) what are the influences and dynamics of being part of a group for news evaluation and sharing 3) what are the neurocognitive correlates of news sharing and the social influence of feedback from the group 4) which measures could be taken by the group to prevent false information from spreading.. The project is comprised of five research studies combining behavioural investigations and brain imaging to examine the neurocognitive processes of fake news evaluation. Taken together, the project has shown the importance of emotions when evaluating news, false or true. Not only is emotional news perceived differently than neutral news, taking the activations in the brain into account, the tremendous impact of emotions in news texts could be shown. Further, the research project could show that the context as e.g. an embedding narrative, have an influence on the news credibility evaluation. Consequently, instructing learning processes regarding news evaluation as well as research for the underlying mechanisms should not be limited solely to cognitive processes but should also include social and affective neurocognitive aspects. Furthermore, narratives and perspective taking, as one element of storytelling, are an additional aspect relevant for news evaluation, that students learning to evaluate news should be aware of.
Humans are inherently social creatures; we evolved to live in groups and our brains have developed to thrive in social environments. In information sharing we use complex communication to share important information to foster development, innovation and wellbeing in our group. Although reliable and verified information should be preferred, we sometimes share information that we do not completely trust but which are novel, important or interesting. Social and neurocognitive mechanisms such as the need to belong are powerful target points, which could be triggered to propagate information, true or false. Particularly, social media exploits these mechanisms as they directly offer tools for social interaction such sharing and liking messages. Although such features seem to mimic social behaviour in real life and may activate brain areas of reward, mentalising, or self-referential cognition, open questions remain in how news is perceived and shared in different social contexts. The goal of this project is to reveal the neural mechanisms underlying the interactive process of news evaluation and sharing them in a group. The innovation in this project is 1) to combine the research fields of neuroscience, psychology, media, computer and learning sciences to study social interactions regarding news sharing, 2) applying the concept of group awareness to the case of news evaluation and test the use of group awareness tools and 3) benefitting from researcher’s strong expertise in multivariate brain imaging data analysis for studying the neural mechanisms of information sharing in groups. Specifically, the project focuses on four research questions: 1) which factors contribute to evaluating and sharing news 2) what are the influences and dynamics of being part of a group for news evaluation and sharing 3) what are the neurocognitive correlates of news sharing and the social influence of feedback from the group 4) which measures could be taken by the group to prevent false information from spreading.. The project is comprised of five research studies combining behavioural investigations and brain imaging to examine the neurocognitive processes of fake news evaluation. Taken together, the project has shown the importance of emotions when evaluating news, false or true. Not only is emotional news perceived differently than neutral news, taking the activations in the brain into account, the tremendous impact of emotions in news texts could be shown. Further, the research project could show that the context as e.g. an embedding narrative, have an influence on the news credibility evaluation. Consequently, instructing learning processes regarding news evaluation as well as research for the underlying mechanisms should not be limited solely to cognitive processes but should also include social and affective neurocognitive aspects. Furthermore, narratives and perspective taking, as one element of storytelling, are an additional aspect relevant for news evaluation, that students learning to evaluate news should be aware of.
The goal of this project is to reveal the behavioural as well as neural mechanisms underlying the interactive process of news evaluation and sharing them in a group. Further, the impact of context information such as an embedding narrative and different learning materials on news evaluation are investigated. The project further explores how the media literacy of learners might be strengthened with the regard to recognizing fake news. In five separate studies the neurocognitive processes of fake news evaluation is investigated combing behavioural examinations with the brain imaging technique of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results, both on the behavioural level as well as on the neurocognitive level show that social and affective aspects are important for the credibility of the news. It is shown that processes such as self-reference, mentalizing, emotion and empathy as well as conflict detection and resolution are essential when evaluating the credibility of news. One could postulate that for these processes it is important to understand own interests, motivations, values and experiences Further, the news’ emotionality as well as their embedding in a narrative is of importance. Thus, when developing teaching approaches to strengthen media literacy and the recognition of fake news, these social and affective neurocognitive aspects should be considered. As the proposed research program is positioned in the interdisciplinary field of social neurocognition and education, the results of the project are of interest for neuroscientists, psychologists and education scientists alike and thus the results were presented at several conferences and communicated to the general public.
It was prospected that the project supports the development of the interdisciplinary field between neuroscience, psychology, media and education sciences, might lead to advances in research, and has societal relevance: This project opens up potential ways to apply the research by transferring results from neurocognitive and social psychological experiments into curricula and teaching. Particularly, the project served at gaining insights in how false information is processed and propagated and helps to develop strategies to hinder fake news from spreading, knowledge, that is crucial to be taught at schools.
The project has shown the importance of emotions when evaluating news. Not only is emotional news perceived differently than neutral news, also by taking the activations in the brain into account, the tremendous impact of emotions in news texts could be shown. Thus, as behavioral but particularly neurocognitive data about the underlying brain patterns have shown, teaching about evaluating the credibility of news should focus on conveying to investigate the emotional content and formulation of news with also asking what the intention of the use of emotion could be. Further, the research project could show that the context and particularly factors as an embedding narrative, framing the news had an influence on the news credibility evaluation. Thus, narratives, as one element of storytelling, are an additional aspect relevant for news evaluation, that students learning to evaluate should be aware of. It would be further worth to concentrate in teaching about fake news on perspective taking and the context the news appears in. The last study of the project took the mentioned topics into account when creating a teaching unit about fake news recognition in school. Further taking first steps to bringing the teaching into school practice revealed that educating them on storytelling as well as perspective taking was indeed meaningful to them and supported their skills to identify fake news. Even more, the study showed that dedicating longer time in teaching on the mentioned topics theoretically as well as practically, might have facilitated the understanding of news evaluation and the recognition of fake news even more. A stable and sustainable contact with the in the project involved teachers was established so that findings of the project might be also implemented in teaching and school curricula on a more long-term base. In future these results should be (even more) brought to the attention of schools and teachers and developed approaches, teaching strategies and programs should be continued and extended.
The project has shown the importance of emotions when evaluating news. Not only is emotional news perceived differently than neutral news, also by taking the activations in the brain into account, the tremendous impact of emotions in news texts could be shown. Thus, as behavioral but particularly neurocognitive data about the underlying brain patterns have shown, teaching about evaluating the credibility of news should focus on conveying to investigate the emotional content and formulation of news with also asking what the intention of the use of emotion could be. Further, the research project could show that the context and particularly factors as an embedding narrative, framing the news had an influence on the news credibility evaluation. Thus, narratives, as one element of storytelling, are an additional aspect relevant for news evaluation, that students learning to evaluate should be aware of. It would be further worth to concentrate in teaching about fake news on perspective taking and the context the news appears in. The last study of the project took the mentioned topics into account when creating a teaching unit about fake news recognition in school. Further taking first steps to bringing the teaching into school practice revealed that educating them on storytelling as well as perspective taking was indeed meaningful to them and supported their skills to identify fake news. Even more, the study showed that dedicating longer time in teaching on the mentioned topics theoretically as well as practically, might have facilitated the understanding of news evaluation and the recognition of fake news even more. A stable and sustainable contact with the in the project involved teachers was established so that findings of the project might be also implemented in teaching and school curricula on a more long-term base. In future these results should be (even more) brought to the attention of schools and teachers and developed approaches, teaching strategies and programs should be continued and extended.