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Study: Most Students Can't Spot Fake News (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the real-world-problems dept.

Even those who think that the U.S. Presidential election wasn't affected by the swath of fake news articles swirling on Facebook and other social media networks, they tend to agree that there is a lot of misinformation on the web. At Slashdot, it's hard to say that anyone here will not be able to tell fake news from a real one. But what about kids? How is our future generation doing? Not so well, apparently. An anonymous reader shares an Engadget report:A Stanford study of 7,804 middle school, high school and college students has found that most of them couldn't identify fake news on their own. Their susceptibility varied with age, but even a large number of the older students fell prey to bogus reports. Over two-thirds of middle school kids didn't see why they shouldn't trust a bank executive's post claiming that young adults need financial help, while nearly 40 percent of high schoolers didn't question the link between an unsourced photo and the claims attached to it. Why did many of the students misjudge the authenticity of a story? They were fixated on the appearance of legitimacy, rather than the quality of information. A large photo or a lot of detail was enough to make a Twitter post seem credible, even if the actual content was incomplete or wrong. There are plenty of adults who respond this way, we'd add, but students are more vulnerable than most.

3 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Duh. by Rockoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Teach logic to preschoolers, I say.

    But that might lead to critical thinking.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  2. Alternately branded communist and racist ... by drnb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had an amazing teacher in middle school. He'd teach us exactly that--how to spot propaganda, false advertising claims, etc. It was probably the best set of lessons I ever learned because now I'm impervious to all the crap.

    Of course, if he was teaching today they'd try to brand him as a communist or a "leftist" (whatever that means) ...

    Actually he would alternately be branded a communist/leftist and a racist/misogynist/[something]-phobe depending on whose propaganda was being scrutinized.

    There, I reject your implication that it is only the right offering false claims. :-)

  3. Re:Fascinating to watch by kqs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I never knew about Breitbart news until this election, and after following them for the last 3 months I think they're probably the best example of actual news reporting on the net. The site is right-wing slanted, but the actual reporting appears to be high quality and accurate.

    You should avoid the obvious trollery; you almost had me for a second there.