Thinking clearly about misinformation

Li Qian Tay; Stephan Lewandowsky; Mark J Hurlstone; Tim Kurz; Ullrich K H Ecker

doi:10.1038/s44271-023-00054-5

Thinking clearly about misinformation

Commun Psychol. 2024 Jan 5;2(1):4. doi: 10.1038/s44271-023-00054-5.

Authors

Li Qian Tay^{1

2}, Stephan Lewandowsky^{3

4

5}, Mark J Hurlstone⁶, Tim Kurz³, Ullrich K H Ecker^{3

7}

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia. li.tay@anu.edu.au.
² School of Medicine and Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia. li.tay@anu.edu.au.
³ School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.
⁴ School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
⁶ Department of Psychology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
⁷ Public Policy Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.

Abstract

There is concern that many ills in Western societies are caused by misinformation. Some researchers argue that misinformation is merely a symptom, not a cause. This is a false dichotomy, and research should differentiate between dimensions of misinformation in these evaluations.