Misinformation and the illusory truth effect
The study of psychology fascinates me. I enjoy reading and watching almost everything related to psychology, from landmark discoveries to goofy tests revealing which cake flavor I am — hot fudge double chocolate brownie, by the way.
This week, I came across something altogether more serious: New research about misinformation and how we make our moral judgement.
A new study published in the journal Psychological Science revealed that being repeatedly exposed to false news might make us feel less unethical about spreading it ourselves — and here’s the scary part—even if we know it is false.
The study was conducted in a series of experiments over the last two years. Researchers Daniel A. Effron, a London Business School associate professor, and Medha Raj, a PhD student at the University of Southern California, presented 12 actual fake news headlines about American politics to more than 2,500 participants.