The Social Cognition of Misinformation and Implications for Psychological Interventions
type: CreativeWork
description: Misinformation poses a significant threat to society, distorting public understanding of critical issues and undermining informed decision-making. From political falsehoods to health-related conspiracies, the pervasive spread of misleading information has far-reaching consequences. While much research on misinformation susceptibility has focused on cognitive factors - such as reasoning ability or analytical thinking - it often overlooks the social contexts in which judgements are made. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the role of social influence, specifically social proof, political identity and source effects, in misinformation susceptibility. Through a series of experiments and interventions, the thesis explores how the social context in which misinformation is consumed affects individual judgements of its veracity (Part I) and how this, in turn, influences the effectiveness of psychological interventions designed to reduce its impact (Part II). Chapter 1 introduces the problem of misinformation and offers a social-psychological perspective on how individuals process information. Building on this, the chapter presents inoculation theory as a potential solution to the misinformation problem while highlighting its limited testing in social environments. Chapter 2 presents two online experiments on source effects, demonstrating that news consumers are more susceptible to misinformation from (real) politically aligned media outlets, with this effect mediated via perceived source credibility. Chapter 3 presents a two-by-two experiment that demonstrates the causal impact of both source credibility and source similarity on misinformation susceptibility - even for fictitious news sources. Chapter 4 experimentally examines the effect of social cues, showing that individuals are more likely to believe misinformation when social proof - such as social media engagement - suggests that others find it reliable. Chapter 5 presents a gamified intervention study demons…
abstract: Misinformation poses a significant threat to society, distorting public understanding of critical issues and undermining informed decision-making. From political falsehoods to health-related conspiracies, the pervasive spread of misleading information has far-reaching consequences. While much research on misinformation susceptibility has focused on cognitive factors - such as reasoning ability or analytical thinking - it often overlooks the social contexts in which judgements are made. This thesis addresses this gap by examining the role of social influence, specifically social proof, political identity and source effects, in misinformation susceptibility. Through a series of experiments and interventions, the thesis explores how the social context in which misinformation is consumed affects individual judgements of its veracity (Part I) and how this, in turn, influences the effectiveness of psychological interventions designed to reduce its impact (Part II). Chapter 1 introduces the problem of misinformation and offers a social-psychological perspective on how individuals process information. Building on this, the chapter presents inoculation theory as a potential solution to the misinformation problem while highlighting its limited testing in social environments. Chapter 2 presents two online experiments on source effects, demonstrating that news consumers are more susceptible to misinformation from (real) politically aligned media outlets, with this effect mediated via perceived source credibility. Chapter 3 presents a two-by-two experiment that demonstrates the causal impact of both source credibility and source similarity on misinformation susceptibility - even for fictitious news sources. Chapter 4 experimentally examines the effect of social cues, showing that individuals are more likely to believe misinformation when social proof - such as social media engagement - suggests that others find it reliable. Chapter 5 presents a gamified intervention study demons…
author: Traberg, Cecilie Steenbuch
language: eng
keywords: psychology, misinformation, experimental, social influence, interventions, inoculation, social cognition, political psychology
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/886c1817-af5f-41df-8043-37bdd5da1b02/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2025-01-14
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:18Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.117697