New Study’s Findings Can Help Communicators Correct Online Misinformation
How you convey a message online ultimately contributes to its acceptance – whether accurate or not – a new George Washington University study shows. Researchers applied 'fuzzy-trace theory' of gists or bottom-line insights, and found that clear and simple yet inaccurate statements are shared more frequently.
GW Today
Misinformation online is always a concern, particularly in a presidential election year. Part of what can make online misinformation so effective is the clarity and relative simplicity with which it is conveyed. A research team headed up at George Washington University has shown that similar pithiness is necessary to persuasively correct misinformation and slow its spread.
Whether information is accurate or false, it is more effective if the bottom-line message is clear and simple, according to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. The study’s lead author, David Broniatowski, is an associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at GW.
Broniatowski and his team of researchers found that people are more likely to share misinformation if it’s easy to understand and conveys a clear, simple message in a nutshell. However, the team also found that accurate information, conveyed similarly in a clear, simple way, can effectively deter people from sharing misinformation.
The researchers said their findings could help public health agencies and other expert communities respond more effectively to false information online. For communicators, the key is to clearly and simply convey a message in ways that allow audiences to grasp the bottom-line gist of the information presented. The gist of a meaningful message should be neither too simple ("This is false") nor too detailed, as in a decontextualized list of facts.
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