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MISINFORMATION

We now live in a digital eco-system where disinformation can spread rapidly (like a viral contagion) through social media, blogs, and fake news sites, threatening the ability of citizens to form evidence-based opinions on issues to do with public health (‘vaccines cause autism’), science (‘global warming is a hoax’), marketing (‘homeopathy can cure cancer’), politics, and national security. Improving well-being and promoting sustainable and healthy consumer behavior requires that we understand how disinformation spreads, what makes people vulnerable to it, and what interventions neutralize its impact on our decisions and actions. This topic forms the basis of an on-going research line that has, until now, mainly focused on scientific misinformation and misconceptions. 

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS

Hughes, S., Lyddy, F., & Kaplan, R. (2013). The Impact of Language and Format on Student Endorsement of Psychological Misconceptions. Teaching of Psychology, 40, 31-37. Link

Hughes, S., Lyddy, F., & Lambe, S. (2013). Misconceptions about Psychological Science: A Review. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 12, 20-31. Link

Lyddy, F., & Hughes, S. (2012). Attitudes Towards Psychology as a Science and the Persistence of Psychological Misconceptions in Psychology Undergraduates. In V. Karandashev, & S. McCarthy, (Eds). Teaching Psychology around the World (Vol. 3).Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Link

Hughes, S., Lyddy, F., Dukes, K, Saad, C., Miller, H., Kaplan, R., Lynch, A., Lee Nichols, A., (2015). Highly Prevalent but Not Always Persistent: Undergraduate and Graduate Student’s Misconceptions about Psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 42(1), 34-42. Link

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