人们为何相信不实信息:科学传播视角下的认知偏差与信息鉴别力研究

Why Do We Fall for Misinformation?Cognitive Bias and Misinformation Discrimination from the Perspective of Science Communication

新冠疫情的全球大流行再一次引发人们对不实信息泛滥的担忧。本研究基于一项面向全国网民的问卷调查(N=3,000),从科学传播视角考察个体认知偏差对不实信息鉴别力的影响。本研究确认了不实信息鉴别当中"达克效应"的存在以及认知偏差对不实信息鉴别的基础性作用。个体客观知识水平正向预测了鉴别能力的高低,但个体感知知识水平则在转基因阴谋论和新冠病毒谣言上反向预测这一能力;与以往研究偏向积极的结论不同,"富"信息环境当中个体越是偏好推敲、查验这样的信息处理策略,其不实信息鉴别力反而越低。

The global pandemic of Covid-19 gave rise to concerns on why people believe misinformation in a new communication context.Based on a questionnaire survey(N=3,000)representing netizens across China,this study explored the impact of cognitive bias on the misinformation discrimination from the perspective of science communication.Findings of this research identified the existence of Dunning-Kruger effect and revealed that cognitive biases play a fundamental role in people’s discrimination against misinformation.Objective knowledges positively predicted the capability of discrimination,but perceived knowledges negatively predicted one’s discrimination under two topics:one is conspiracy theories on GMO,the other is rumors about novel coronavirus.Besides,one’s information processing strategies such as elaboration and fact-checking negatively predicted the ability of discrimination,which is incoherent with earlier results.