Actively open-minded thinking is key to combating fake news: A multimethod study

The fake news phenomenon has exposed the vulnerability of individuals and societies to information manipulation in social media. We conducted two studies to understand why people believe in fake news and propose a simple IT intervention method that can help in detecting disinformation. In Study 1, we designed a laboratory experiment using behavioral and neurophysiological tools to test two competing theories in the disinformation literature. Both behavioral and neurophysiological evidence support the classical reasoning account hypotheses and reject the motivated reasoning predictions, suggesting that the lack of actively open-minded thinking (AOT) is linked to the belief in fake news. An intervention method was designed (i.e., performance feedback) that reduces individuals’ overconfidence in their ability to detect fake news and encourages more analytical thinking. In Study 2, we conducted an online survey presenting participants with their performance feedback halfway through the survey. The results show that the intervention increased participants’ performance by 14%. Our study contributes to the research on fake news by providing behavioral and neurophysiological evidence in support of the classical reasoning account. It also offers a simple and practical method that increases users’ ability to detect fake news.