When forewarned is not forearmed: The paradoxical effect of single warnings attached to repeated fake news

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cloé Gratton ◽  
Émilie Gagnon-St-Pierre ◽  
Henry Markovits

The fight against misinformation on social media and the internet in general has gained tremendous attention in the recent years. One way of combatting this has been to attach warnings tags about verified content. In this paper, we report two studies that examine the potential effects of a single warning tag in a context where the gist of a False claim is often repeated without the tag, which, given the reality of the way that information is transmitted, can be said to be an ecologically realistic model. Study 1 showed that the placement of the tag makes no difference, while a simple tag produces higher levels of belief than a tag with explanatory details. Remarkably, the simple tag produces a large increase in belief in the False claim. Study 2 showed that enhancing the distinctive character of a tag by adding irrelevant information to it produces a relative increase in believability equivalent to that obtained by making the claim graphically more distinctive. However, repeating a simple tag more often reduces this effect. These results indicate that the effects of warning tags are a combination of adding to the distinctiveness of the memory trace of the False claim (which makes this more believable by increasing fluency) and the semantic content of the tag (which reduces belief).

2009 ◽  
Vol 87 (11) ◽  
pp. 1610-1619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingyong Meng ◽  
Chenggen Zhang ◽  
Ming-Bao Huang

For a theoretical model study on the cyclic reaction of 4-hydroxybutanal (4-OH-BL), we have examined five assumed reaction pathways (I–V) by performing the B3LYP calculations in the gas phase and self-consistent isodensity polarized continuum model (SCIPCM)-B3LYP calculations in aqueous solution. Pathways II (4-OH-BL + H+), III (4-OH-BL + H3O+), and IV (4-OH-BL + H3O+ + H2O) represent three models for the cyclic reaction catalyzed by Brønsted acids. The present study leads to the following conclusions concerning the five pathways (mainly on the basis of the calculation results in the solution). The high barrier along pathway I (with no catalyst) implies that the reaction does not occur without a catalyst, and the extremely large stabilization energy of the intermediate implies that pathway II is not a realistic model for the reaction catalyzed by Brønsted acid. Along pathway III, there are two intermediates and a transition state in between, and they are 10–16 kcal/mol lower in energy than the reactants (4-OH-BL + H3O+). Along pathway IV, there is only one intermediate, and it is 20.6 kcal/mol lower in energy than the reactants (4-OH-BL + H3O+ + H2O). Pathways III and IV are predicted to be feasible. Energetically, pathway IV is more favourable than pathway III and it is considered as a rational model for the cyclic reaction of 4-OH-BL catalyzed by Brønsted acid. Our calculations for pathway V (catalyzed by H2O) indicate that the water molecule may also serve as a catalyst for the cyclic reaction. The transition state along pathway V is 20.0 kcal/mol higher in energy than the reactants (4-OH-BL + H2O), and one can clearly see the “proton wire” in its structure. Our calculations show strong solvent effects on energetics of the charged intermediates along pathways II, III, and IV.


2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 1199-1224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Grison ◽  
Steven P. Tipper ◽  
Olivia Hewitt

Negative priming reveals that participants respond slowly to a probe target that was a task-irrelevant distractor in the preceding prime display (e.g., Tipper, 1985) and is thought to reflect processes mediating short-term behaviour. However, since the first surprising reports that negative priming is found with meaningless stimuli across delays of 30 days (e.g., DeSchepper & Treisman, 1996), researchers have questioned the existence of long-term negative priming effects. Because long-term negative priming could indicate that task-irrelevant information leaves a memory trace that impacts performance over time, such a finding is of immense theoretical importance. Indeed, the current research finds support for the existence of long-term negative priming as well as its generality across different stimuli and conditions. The authors propose that the initial processes that prevent response to irrelevant stimuli may be stored in memory, where retrieval of these processes can mediate behaviour over time.


Author(s):  
J. Bonevich ◽  
D. Capacci ◽  
G. Pozzi ◽  
K. Harada ◽  
H. Kasai ◽  
...  

The successful observation of superconducting flux lines (fluxons) in thin specimens both in conventional and high Tc superconductors by means of Lorentz and electron holography methods has presented several problems concerning the interpretation of the experimental results. The first approach has been to model the fluxon as a bundle of flux tubes perpendicular to the specimen surface (for which the electron optical phase shift has been found in analytical form) with a magnetic flux distribution given by the London model, which corresponds to a flux line having an infinitely small normal core. In addition to being described by an analytical expression, this model has the advantage that a single parameter, the London penetration depth, completely characterizes the superconducting fluxon. The obtained results have shown that the most relevant features of the experimental data are well interpreted by this model. However, Clem has proposed another more realistic model for the fluxon core that removes the unphysical limitation of the infinitely small normal core and has the advantage of being described by an analytical expression depending on two parameters (the coherence length and the London depth).


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
Angel Ball ◽  
Jean Neils-Strunjas ◽  
Kate Krival

This study is a posthumous longitudinal study of consecutive letters written by an elderly woman from age 89 to 93. Findings reveal a consistent linguistic performance during the first 3 years, supporting “normal” status for late elderly writing. She produced clearly written cursive form, intact semantic content, and minimal spelling and stroke errors. A decline in writing was observed in the last 6–9 months of the study and an analysis revealed production of clausal fragmentation, decreasing semantic clarity, and a higher frequency of spelling, semantic, and stroke errors. Analysis of writing samples can be a valuable tool in documenting a change in cognitive status differentiated from normal late aging.


1968 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 825-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn M. Corlew

Two experiments investigated the information conveyed by intonation from speaker to listener. A multiple-choice test was devised to test the ability of 48 adults to recognize and label intonation when it was separated from all other meaning. Nine intonation contours whose labels were most agreed upon by adults were each matched with two English sentences (one with appropriate and one with inappropriate intonation and semantic content) to make a matching-test for children. The matching-test was tape-recorded and given to children in the first, third, and fifth grades (32 subjects in each grade). The first-grade children matched the intonations with significantly greater agreement than chance; but they agreed upon significantly fewer sentences than either the third or fifth graders. Some intonation contours were matched with significantly greater frequency than others. The performance of the girls was better than that of the boys on an impatient question and a simple command which indicates that there was a significant interaction between sex and intonation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-140
Author(s):  
Robert Busching ◽  
Johannes Lutz

Abstract. Legally irrelevant information like facial features is used to form judgments about rape cases. Using a reverse-correlation technique, it is possible to visualize criminal stereotypes and test whether these representations influence judgments. In the first step, images of the stereotypical faces of a rapist, a thief, and a lifesaver were generated. These images showed a clear distinction between the lifesaver and the two criminal representations, but the criminal representations were rather similar. In the next step, the images were presented together with rape scenarios, and participants (N = 153) indicated the defendant’s level of liability. Participants with high rape myth acceptance scores attributed a lower level of liability to a defendant who resembled a stereotypical lifesaver. However, no specific effects of the image of the stereotypical rapist compared to the stereotypical thief were found. We discuss the findings with respect to the influence of visual stereotypes on legal judgments and the nature of these mental representations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beat Meier ◽  
Anja König ◽  
Samuel Parak ◽  
Katharina Henke

This study investigates the impact of thought suppression over a 1-week interval. In two experiments with 80 university students each, we used the think/no-think paradigm in which participants initially learn a list of word pairs (cue-target associations). Then they were presented with some of the cue words again and should either respond with the target word or avoid thinking about it. In the final test phase, their memory for the initially learned cue-target pairs was tested. In Experiment 1, type of memory test was manipulated (i.e., direct vs. indirect). In Experiment 2, type of no-think instructions was manipulated (i.e., suppress vs. substitute). Overall, our results showed poorer memory for no-think and control items compared to think items across all experiments and conditions. Critically, however, more no-think than control items were remembered after the 1-week interval in the direct, but not in the indirect test (Experiment 1) and with thought suppression, but not thought substitution instructions (Experiment 2). We suggest that during thought suppression a brief reactivation of the learned association may lead to reconsolidation of the memory trace and hence to better retrieval of suppressed than control items in the long term.


2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montserrat Zurrón ◽  
Marta Ramos-Goicoa ◽  
Fernando Díaz

With the aim of establishing the temporal locus of the semantic conflict in color-word Stroop and emotional Stroop phenomena, we analyzed the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) elicited by nonwords, incongruent and congruent color words, colored words with positive and negative emotional valence, and colored words with neutral valence. The incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral stimuli produced interference in the behavioral response to the color of the stimuli. The P150/N170 amplitude was sensitive to the semantic equivalence of both dimensions of the congruent color words. The P3b amplitude was smaller in response to incongruent color words and to positive, negative, and neutral colored words than in response to the congruent color words and colored nonwords. There were no differences in the ERPs induced in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence. Therefore, the P3b amplitude was sensitive to interference from the semantic content of the incongruent, positive, negative, and neutral words in the color-response task, independently of the emotional content of the colored words. In addition, the P3b amplitude was smaller in response to colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence than in response to the incongruent color words. Overall, these data indicate that the temporal locus of the semantic conflict generated by the incongruent color words (in the color-word Stroop task) and by colored words with positive, negative, and neutral valence (in the emotional Stroop task) appears to occur in the range 300–450 ms post-stimulus.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bäckström ◽  
Fredrik Björklund

The difference between evaluatively loaded and evaluatively neutralized five-factor inventory items was used to create new variables, one for each factor in the five-factor model. Study 1 showed that these variables can be represented in terms of a general evaluative factor which is related to social desirability measures and indicated that the factor may equally well be represented as separate from the Big Five as superordinate to them. Study 2 revealed an evaluative factor in self-ratings and peer ratings of the Big Five, but the evaluative factor in self-reports did not correlate with such a factor in ratings by peers. In Study 3 the evaluative factor contributed above the Big Five in predicting work performance, indicating a substance component. The results are discussed in relation to measurement issues and self-serving biases.


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