Aging and fake news: It's not the story you think it is

Date:
May 2, 2022
Source:
University of Florida
Summary:
A new study has found that older adults are no more likely to fall
for fake news than younger adults, with age-related susceptibility
to deceptive news evident only among those categorized as the
'oldest old.'


FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Not being able to distinguish fake news from real news can have serious consequences for a person's physical, emotional and financial well-being -
- especially for older adults, who in general have more financial assets
and must make more high-stakes health decisions.


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So how good are older adults at detecting fake news? A new study has
found that older adults are no more likely to fall for fake news than
younger adults, with age-related susceptibility to deceptive news evident
only among those categorized as the "oldest old." The study, conducted
by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of
Central Florida during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, was
published May 2 online by the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

The research is the first to delineate the role of analytical reasoning,
affect and news consumption frequency on detection of fake news in
older adults across a broad age range as well as in direct comparison
to young adults.

"We wanted to see if there was an age difference in determining whether
news is true versus false," said Didem Pehlivanoglu, lead author and
a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at UF. "We specifically wanted to look at this because we know that with aging most
people show some decline in their cognitive abilities. But we also know
some information processing abilities are preserved or even improved."
The research is scant regarding older adults' susceptibility to fake news
and what factors might aid or impair a person's ability to judge the
veracity of information. Raising concern, some previous work suggested
that older adults shared false information over social media more often
than did young adults during the 2016 presidential election. And the
dramatic increase in misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic has
heightened concern, given that the virus has been particularly deadly
for older adults.



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But is that warranted? "People have this perception that older adults are
going to perform worse than young adults across the board but that is not
the case," said Brian Cahill, a co-author and psychology professor at UF.

While many people show cognitive decline as they age, it is also true
that with age comes a broader knowledge base, more life experience and,
often, more positive affect. As a group, older adults also tend to
consume more news than younger adults. These factors may filter and contextualize information processing in older adults.

The researchers set out to explore age differences in the ability
to identify fake news and how analytical reasoning, affect and news
consumption frequency effected that ability. The study was conducted
between May and October of 2020; the older adults ranged in age from 61
to 87 years and the younger adults were college students.

In the study, participants read and evaluated 12 full-length news articles about COVID and non-COVID topics, with six real and six fake stories in
each category. After reading an article, participants were asked such
questions as whether the article was real or fake and how confident they
were in their decision.

The researchers then measured the participants' analytical reasoning
skills, affect and news consumption frequency.



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They found that the ability to detect fake news was comparable between
young and older adults. Determining an article was fake was related
to individual differences in analytical reasoning skills for both age
groups. Also, both young and older adults showed a lower ability to
detect fake COVID news compared to everyday fake news, which may reflect
low familiarity with information related to COVID at the beginning of
the pandemic.

Importantly, however, the more elderly older adults -- that is those individuals age 70 years or older -- showed a reduced ability to detect
fake news, whether about COVID or another topic, and that decreased
ability was associated with levels of analytical reasoning, affect and
news consumption frequency.

Adults in the 70+ age group who had greater positive affect and
who frequently consumed news were most likely to engage in "shallow" information processing, including not looking as closely at information
or paying attention to details.

It may only be in very late old age, at a time in life when declines
in cognitive abilities cannot be compensated for anymore by gains in
life experience and world knowledge that individuals become particularly vulnerable to deception via misinformation and fake news, the researchers
said in the study.

"It is a particularly high-risk population with high stakes for wrong
decision making, not just for themselves but also for society at large,"
said Natalie Ebner, a co-author and psychology professor at UF.

The findings have the potential to influence design of decision-supportive interventions to enhance news communication and reduce misinformation
across the lifespan and in aging, the team said.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Florida. Original
written by Brooke Adams.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Didem Pehlivanoglu, Nichole R. Lighthall, Tian Lin, Kevin J. Chi,
Rebecca
Polk, Eliany Perez, Brian S. Cahill, Natalie C. Ebner. Aging in an
"infodemic": The role of analytical reasoning, affect, and news
consumption frequency on news veracity detection.. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2022; DOI: 10.1037/xap0000426 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220502142230.htm

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