Explaining 'Why is it easy to believe in fake news?' From a psychology point of view, how should it be dealt with?


by

Paul Wullum

As the incident that two people were killed and Lynch were killed by the crowd who believed the ' fake news ', 'the lie' is diffused in a blink of an eye in the present age, and many people believe the lie. Julian Mathews, who studies cognitive neuroscience at Monash University in Australia, talks about the principles of fake news getting into the human mind from a psychology point of view and the measures to keep it from believing in fake news You

How fake news gets into our minds, and what you can do to resist it
https://theconversation.com/how-fake-news-gets-into-our-minds-and-what-you-can-do-to-resist-it-114921

Even in the media such as newspapers, fake news has existed for a long time. However, since the Internet has become commonplace, anyone can create and send fake news, and the impact is growing.

Two innocent by a crowd who believed Facebook and WhatsApp's fake news on Lynch's flames-GIGAZINE



'The fake Arc de Triomphe in Paris is on fire' was a tweet-GIGAZINE



Even if the number of liars sending fake news is very small, the effects of fake news are large, and

research has also been reported that it would distort the behavior of a large number of groups, and now fake news is a serious social problem. I can.

According to Matthews, thinking from a psychology point of view, 'Cope with fake news' is 'to understand' Why does fake news remain in people's hearts? '.

People's memories can be distorted before they recognize it, so it is fake to understand 'how is memory distorted?' And 'how do I remember things?' It seems to be connected to measures for the news.

◆ How is memory distorted?
The main cause for being faked by fake news is what is called false attribution . False attribution is a phenomenon where you remember that you saw it 'somewhere' but you do not remember 'where you saw it'. One of the familiar things that use false attribution is 'commercials', and when we look at a product, we may find that it feels 'more familiar than other products' and unintentionally purchases it. , Even though we can realize that we feel 'I feel familiar,' it is rare that we come to the root cause of 'I saw the product in the commercial because we felt that I felt familiar'. is.


By

NomadSoul1

By false attribution, humans tend to be more likely to believe that they will hear and read repeatedly , even if they are fake news. Also, if the majority of people have false recognition, it may further accelerate their false recognition like the Mandela effect .

◆ Prejudice reinforces the memory of fake news
According to Matthews, human beings do not simply remember things as 'saving files' on a PC, but rather 'being content that they want to believe' rather than being 'correct' or not Focusing and remembering things. For example, people with cyber psychosis remember information about illnesses they believed were suffering but they did not remember information that would deny illnesses they thought they were suffering from, ' It is an example of a mechanism that 'remembers what you want to believe' works.

Believing that 'I must be ill' and continuing to search for solutions on the Internet What is 'cyber psychosis'? -GIGAZINE



Fake News often uses people's prejudices to be 'content that they want to believe involuntarily' and tends to be remembered because of the brain mechanism of 'remembering the content that you want to believe'. And even if the news is later corrected as 'fake', the emotional impact that the correction gives is so small that it is difficult to remember and only the correction tends to be forgotten.

◆ How to deal with fake news?
Fake News uses the principle of human memory and is almost impossible to cope with completely. But Matthews says it is important to 'question based on curiosity' and 'to be aware of your own bias.' Specifically, he introduced that it would be difficult to be fooled by fake news if you ask yourself the following content.

・ What kind of 'classification' sentences
Even if you say sentences in a single word, you can classify them in various ways, such as 'news,' 'someone's opinion,' 'humor.' If you read sentences while being aware of these classifications, the contents will be organized more clearly in your own memory.

・ Where is the source of information
If it is a 'real serious case', many news agencies should have taken up the news. If there are too few sources, you may need to question the contents.

・ Who earns a profit
Considering who benefits by spreading the fake news, it is effective not only to organize memories, but also to review one's interests and prejudices.

Matthews concludes, 'It is important to pay attention to the sources, to doubt yourself if you are unsure of your own memory, and to try to be free from prejudice.'

in Note, Posted by darkhorse_log