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      Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence

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      Author(s): 1 , 2 , * ,   2 , 3 , 2
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      Publication date (Electronic):
      Journal: PLoS ONE
      Publisher: Public Library of Science

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          Abstract

          Misinformation can undermine a well-functioning democracy. For example, public misconceptions about climate change can lead to lowered acceptance of the reality of climate change and lowered support for mitigation policies. This study experimentally explored the impact of misinformation about climate change and tested several pre-emptive interventions designed to reduce the influence of misinformation. We found that false-balance media coverage (giving contrarian views equal voice with climate scientists) lowered perceived consensus overall, although the effect was greater among free-market supporters. Likewise, misinformation that confuses people about the level of scientific agreement regarding anthropogenic global warming (AGW) had a polarizing effect, with free-market supporters reducing their acceptance of AGW and those with low free-market support increasing their acceptance of AGW. However, we found that inoculating messages that (1) explain the flawed argumentation technique used in the misinformation or that (2) highlight the scientific consensus on climate change were effective in neutralizing those adverse effects of misinformation. We recommend that climate communication messages should take into account ways in which scientific content can be distorted, and include pre-emptive inoculation messages.

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          Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change

          Sander C. van der Linden, Anthony Leiserowitz, Seth Rosenthal … (2017)
          Effectively addressing climate change requires significant changes in individual and collective human behavior and decision‐making. Yet, in light of the increasing politicization of (climate) science, and the attempts of vested‐interest groups to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change through organized “disinformation campaigns,” identifying ways to effectively engage with the public about the issue across the political spectrum has proven difficult. A growing body of research suggests that one promising way to counteract the politicization of science is to convey the high level of normative agreement (“consensus”) among experts about the reality of human‐caused climate change. Yet, much prior research examining public opinion dynamics in the context of climate change has done so under conditions with limited external validity. Moreover, no research to date has examined how to protect the public from the spread of influential misinformation about climate change. The current research bridges this divide by exploring how people evaluate and process consensus cues in a polarized information environment. Furthermore, evidence is provided that it is possible to pre‐emptively protect (“inoculate”) public attitudes about climate change against real‐world misinformation.
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            The association of knowledge with concern about global warming: trusted information sources shape public thinking.

            J Krosnick, Gerrit G. Langer, A Malka (2009)
            During the last decade, a great deal of news media attention has focused on informing the American public about scientific findings on global warming (GW). Has learning this sort of information led the American public to become more concerned about GW? Using data from two surveys of nationally representative samples of American adults, this article shows that the relation between self-reported knowledge and concern about GW is more complex than what previous research has suggested. Among people who trust scientists to provide reliable information about the environment and among Democrats and Independents, increased knowledge has been associated with increased concern. But among people who are skeptical about scientists and among Republicans more knowledge was generally not associated with greater concern. The association of knowledge with concern among Democrats and Independents who trust scientists was mediated by perceptions of consensus among scientists about GW's existence and by perceptions that humans are a principal cause of GW. Moreover, additional analyses of panel survey data produced findings consistent with the notion that more knowledge yields more concern among Democrats and Independents, but not among Republicans. Thus, when studying the relation of knowledge and concern, it is important to take into account the content of the information that different types of people acquire and choose to rely upon.
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              The rise of global warming skepticism: exploring affective image associations in the United States over time.

              Anthony Leiserowitz, Nicholas Smith (2012)
              This article explores how affective image associations to global warming have changed over time. Four nationally representative surveys of the American public were conducted between 2002 and 2010 to assess public global warming risk perceptions, policy preferences, and behavior. Affective images (positive or negative feelings and cognitive representations) were collected and content analyzed. The results demonstrate a large increase in "naysayer" associations, indicating extreme skepticism about the issue of climate change. Multiple regression analyses found that holistic affect and "naysayer" associations were more significant predictors of global warming risk perceptions than cultural worldviews or sociodemographic variables, including political party and ideology. The results demonstrate the important role affective imagery plays in judgment and decision-making processes, how these variables change over time, and how global warming is currently perceived by the American public. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Emmanuel Manalo: Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date (Electronic): 5 May 2017
                Publication date Collection: 2017
                Volume: 12
                Issue: 5
                Electronic Location Identifier: e0175799
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America
                [2 ]School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
                [3 ]School of Experimental Psychology and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
                Kyoto University, JAPAN
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                • Conceptualization: JC SL UE.

                • Data curation: JC SL.

                • Formal analysis: JC SL.

                • Funding acquisition: SL UE.

                • Methodology: JC SL.

                • Supervision: SL UE.

                • Visualization: JC.

                • Writing – original draft: JC.

                • Writing – review & editing: JC SL UE.

                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-16-15763
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0175799
                PMC ID: 5419564
                PubMed ID: 28475576
                SO-VID: 59a9524a-b5e8-4d57-a835-f853748a73ba
                Copyright © © 2017 Cook et al
                License:

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Date received : 18 April 2016
                Date accepted : 31 March 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 4, Pages: 21
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000923, Australian Research Council;
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000288, Royal Society;
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Psychonomics Society
                Award Recipient :
                Support was provided by the Australian Research Council, the Royal Society, and the Psychonomics Society. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Earth Sciences
                Subject: Atmospheric Science
                Subject: Climatology
                Subject: Climate Change
                Subject: People and Places
                Subject: Population Groupings
                Subject: Professions
                Subject: Scientists
                Subject: Earth Sciences
                Subject: Atmospheric Science
                Subject: Climatology
                Subject: Climate Change
                Subject: Global Warming
                Subject: Science Policy
                Subject: People and places
                Subject: Geographical locations
                Subject: North America
                Subject: United States
                Subject: Oregon
                Subject: Research and Analysis Methods
                Subject: Research Design
                Subject: Survey Research
                Subject: Surveys
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Public and Occupational Health
                Subject: Preventive Medicine
                Subject: Inoculation
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Immunology
                Subject: Vaccination and Immunization
                Subject: Inoculation
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Immunology
                Subject: Vaccination and Immunization
                Subject: Inoculation
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Public and Occupational Health
                Subject: Preventive Medicine
                Subject: Vaccination and Immunization
                Subject: Inoculation
                Subject: Social Sciences
                Subject: Political Science
                Subject: Governments
                Subject: Political Parties
                Custom metadata
                Data Availability All data files are available from the Dryad repository DOI: doi: 10.5061/dryad.f17j3.

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

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