Conspiracy theories (CTs) are spectacular narratives, widely spread, that pose societal threats. We test whether CTs might be linguistically creative products, which would facilitate their transmission and thereby account for their widespread popularity. We analyzed nominal compounds (e.g., "mind control," "carbon dioxide"; N =…

The International Literacy Day 2023 was the first after the launch the text generating artificial intelligence ChatGPT. This was the reason for a Literacy Promptathon that allows users to learn how to handle text and image generation. The International Literacy Day media coverage for the first time touched on the question of AI generated text. One…

Fighting false information, propaganda, open lies, rumors, misinformation, and disinformation by attacking it directly and challenging it is the dominant strategy for dealing with false beliefs (Lazer et al., 2018; Maseri et al., 2020; Van Bavel et al., 2021), and it is an important one. Refuting falsity is crucial. At the same time, there are…

This study interviewed adolescents about their exposure to and perceptions of substance-related social media content and substance use prevention messages. Participants (analytic sample N = 30, age 14-18 years, in CA, USA, 40% male) were recruited from Instagram and Facebook for online semi-structured interviews. An interview transcript coding…

Infographics are visual storytelling techniques used to communicate complex information. However, infographics can be misleading if they are not created ethically. When universities teach how to create infographics, they often do so without emphasizing the ethical issues underlying infographics. To address this gap, we designed a study to educate…

Misinformation can profoundly impact an individual's attitudes--sometimes even after the misinformation has been corrected. In two preregistered experiments (N[subscript 1] = 355, N[subscript 2] = 725), we investigated whether individual differences in the ability and motivation to process information thoroughly influence the impact of…

This study aimed to investigate the predictive role of critical thinking dispositions and new media literacies on the ability to detect fake news on social media. The sample group of the study consisted of 157 university students. Sosu Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale, New Media Literacy Scale, and fake news detection task were employed to…

The phenomenal increase in the level of digital technologies has in no small measure enabled and opened new vista of possibilities that were hitherto inconceivable before the advent of these digital technologies. Indeed, this phenomenon has also increased the 'crescendo' of various seemingly impossible trends in the area of circulation of…

The efficacy of fake news corrections in improving memory and belief accuracy may depend on how often adults see false information before it is corrected. Two experiments tested the competing predictions that repeating fake news before corrections will either impair or improve memory and belief accuracy. These experiments also examined whether…

Misinformation is one society's most pressing issues, spreading division and chaos across the globe. Videogames have become one of the more promising mediums for misinformation interventions, teaching players common falsehood indicators and helping them develop their discernment abilities. This thesis details the design, playtesting, and…

Drawing from Wendy Holliday's use of metaphor to generate exploration around information literacy discourse, we pose some preliminary ideas about mapping a vaccination metaphor onto one-shots. We do so to offer another lens through which to explore the mechanisms and implications of one-shots being viewed as common-sensical and unassailable. Thus,…

In a world where exposure to untrustworthy communicators is common, trust has become more important than ever for effective marketing. Nevertheless, we know very little about the long-term consequences of exposure to untrustworthy sources, such bullshitters. This research examines how untrustworthy sources--liars and bullshitters--influence…

Misinformation affects various aspects of people's lives, such as politics, entertainment, and social interactions. However, effective intervention measures to combat misinformation are lacking. The inoculation theory has become a prevalent measure of misinformation. This study employed inoculation theory and developed an interactive game to help…

This study discusses the findings of a survey designed to capture students' allocations of credibility to online materials resembling social media posts. The survey respondents were 1,019 undergraduate students at a medium-sized Canadian university. The students came from a range of programs and years of study in those programs. The survey…

Much has been written about the potential civic ramifications of online misinformation, and scholars have identified many useful strategies for helping students discern fact from fiction on social media. However, those strategies make an assumption, which is that consumers of digital media have a desire to identify and share accurate information.…