Misinformation and fake news continue to be a major problem across social media platforms. Now, a new study reports people with high emotional intelligence are much less likely to fall for deceptive and untrue news items.
Conducted at the University of Strathclyde, the study asked a group of volunteers to take a look at various social media news stories, some true and some false. The group then tried to determine which were real and which were fictitious. Each participant also gave a short explanation as to their fact-checking thought process and filled out a test to gauge their emotional intelligence.
The news stories presented to participants covered a variety of topics, including health, the environment, crime, and wealth inequality. The fake headlines in particular featured a lack of trusted sources, not a lot of information in general, and emotive language.
Ultimately, participants scoring high on the emotional intelligence test were most likely to accurately pick out fake news items. Study authors also noted a similar relationship between education level and fake news detecting ability. In other words, participants with more education appear to have a better eye for spotting fake news.
“Fake news on social media is now a matter of considerable public and governmental concern. Research on dealing with this issue is still in its infancy but recent studies have started to focus on the psychological factors which might make some individuals less susceptible to fake news,” says Dr. Tony Anderson, Senior Teaching Fellow in Psychology at Strathclyde, in a university release.
“We assessed whether people were better able to disregard the emotionally charged content of such items and better equipped to assess the veracity of the information. We found that, while distinguishing real news content from fake was challenging, on average participants were more likely to make the correct decision than not,” the researcher adds. “Previous research has shown that people can be trained to enhance their own EQ levels. This should help them to discern with a greater degree of accuracy which news is reliable and which is misleading.”
Read more at StudyFinds.
{Matzav.com}
Study authors also noted a similar relationship between education level and fake news detecting ability.
This doesn’t seem true. The people who trust The New York Times are definitely more educated than the typical guy in the street. Ditto for a lot of other fake news venues.
In fact it seems the opposite. The LESS educated people are the less likely they are to trust the media. Which in turn also gives them more objectivity and capability to detect false news. With the exception of conspiracy theory crowd or the demagogue crowd who are usually less educated
That is PC for People less sincere and straight & undeserved
This article itself and fake news. The itself is propaganda.
“People With High Intelligence Less Likely To Fall For ‘Fake News’” no need to add ’emotional’
“People With High Intelligence Less Likely To Fall For ‘Fake News’” no need to add ’emotional’. Unfortunately not many Jews do not fall for fake news. Not many have the intelligence to grasp that 99% of Jewish media is fake news taken from CNN, AP, NYT, Fox and other junk news.
So here’s the question: Does the matzav.com readership have a high emotional intelligence???
Momentarily Matzav is still part of the fake news propaganda media, so you can understand the intelligence of their readership…
Dutch. The babies rule. Is it fake news if they gum it with plastic surgery? Ooo so bit to be.
The really bad news is the progressive lady in immodest clothing. My father sets it they are cold the buck they snare mindlessly burred.
Young tips. No fake news.
Of course! They can think, critically, for themselves!