Growing Up in the Digital Age of Disinformation

Introduction

Disinformation is a growing and pervasive problem in modern society. Adolescents spend over 6.5 hours per day on their smartphones and many use social media as a primary information source. There is ample indication in the developmental science literature that adolescents might be particularly susceptible to disinformation.

Research Gap

Yet surprisingly little is known about how susceptibility to disinformation changes throughout adolescence and how we might foster youth’s resilience against disinformation.

Proposed Research Program

Here I propose an innovative research program to develop the first comprehensive account of susceptibility to disinformation during adolescence. With this fundamental knowledge, I will develop new instruments to promote truth discernment in youths, which are urgently needed in today’s digital era.

Methodology

While many prior developmental studies rely on self-reported online activities, the proposed research will innovate this field by gaining deep and objective insights by:

1. Applying natural language models to adolescents’ social media data.
2. Utilizing computational models of reinforcement learning and decision-making in novel experimental paradigms.
3. Conducting network analyses to capture the interplay between risk factors.

Research Objectives

This approach will gain novel and necessary insights into:

1. The types of (dis)information that adolescents encounter on social media.
2. How persuasion techniques affect adolescents' veracity judgments and information sharing decisions.
3. The learning processes that underlie social influence and impact adolescents’ veracity judgments and information sharing decisions.
4. The individual differences which make adolescents more susceptible to disinformation and extreme views.

Expected Outcomes

The findings will result in a comprehensive, fundamental understanding of adolescents’ susceptibility to disinformation, including risk factor contexts, and the first evidence-based educational program against disinformation tailored to youths’ age-specific needs.