Speaking of Psychology: Fake News and Why It Matters

In a special bonus episode filmed at APA 2019, the annual meeting of the association, APA director of research and special projects Vaile Wright, PhD, talks with Chrysalis Wright, PhD, associate lecturer at the University of Central Florida, about fake news, how it spreads and why we should care about it.

Vaile Wright: Hello and welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a podcast by the American Psychological Association. I'm Dr. Vaile Wright, the director of research and special projects at APA, and I'm guest hosting this podcast today coming to you from APA 2019 in Chicago.

Joining us today is Dr. Chrysalis Wright. She's the director of media and migration lab at the University of Central Florida and we're gonna be talking about fake news. I mean my goodness fake news. It's 2017's word of the year, it just made it into the Oxford English Dictionary and it's everywhere. So, I'm hoping we can really talk about and have a dialogue about what does it mean when intentionally fabricated content is spread as fact and why should we care about it? So, that's what we're going to talk about today. So, thank you for joining us.

Chrysalis Wright: Thank you for having me.

Vaile Wright: Absolutely. I thought maybe one of the ways to start would be if you could tell a little bit about your background and how you kind of came to studying this type of thing, because I don't think a lot of psychologists necessarily go into this.

Chrysalis Wright: Well, my doctorate degree is in developmental psychology, and I'm in the psychology department at the University of Central Florida, and the majority of my research up until I don't know a couple years ago focused on the influence of music. So, most of my research focuses on the impact of like entertainment media and other types of media on consumers, and I started to become interested in fake news because of things I started seeing in 2015, 2016 it seemed like that term started to be thrown around a lot, everyone was accusing everyone else of presenting information and everything was called fake news, but alongside that I started to, I think we all started to see an increase in very overt prejudicial behavior that was presented to consumers through, you know through various media avenues and I wanted to know that why that was happening. So, that's why I started looking at fake news.

Vaile Wright: And we're all kind of consumers, right? Yeah when you're talking, but we're all consumers of sort of what's going on. So, when we're thinking about the fact that we're all consumers, our family are consumers, you know, how do we explain what is fake news? Why is it a problem?

Chrysalis Wright: Well there there's, it's kind of hard to define because everyone is using the term but the way I use it or define it in terms of a research perspective might be a little bit different. So, when I'm looking at fake news in terms of research, I'm looking at false, completely false information that kind of perpetrates rumors, spreads misinformation with the intent of providing false information to consumers which is different than say a news report that's presented from a biased perspective.

Vaile Wright: And so, where does satire come into this? Because I came across this website the other day called Taters gonna Tate.

Chrysalis Wright: Oh, I actually was going to talk about that today.

Vaile Wright: Excellent, so, I mean where do you fit that in? I mean it's a satirical website with very provocative headlines that are meant to be provocative, and it says all over there's these disclaimers for satire, for satire.

Chrysalis Wright: So, that's the problem, people not everyone reads the disclaimer. I mean, you know this not everyone reads the fine print, right? Like usually we just for instance if you go to download an app on your phone and you have to agree to the terms and conditions, we don't actually read that we just hit the box and say whatever and go straight to it. So, we don't read the fine print, but consumers aren't provided with the tools necessary to be able to decipher satire versus actual fake news. And we saw a recent example of how misinterpreting information how it can actually influence attitudes and even behaviors.

So recently there was an instance that involved two police officers in Louisiana, which might be how you came across the website Taters Gonna Tate in the first place. So, we had a situation where there was a police officer who was on social media, I believe he was on Facebook, and he saw a post that I believe he believed it was true. And the post talked about how one of our congresswomen, it said something to the effect that she believed our military were overpaid for their services. And so, he read this article or whatever the information was on Facebook, felt really strongly about it and then posted a comment that was interpreted rightly as a death threat against the congresswoman. And then another police officer liked his post. Both of the police officers were fired, especially because of the post that the death threat was a bit much and that's why they you know they were fired from the force. But the post that they were responding to was from Taters Gonna Tate like that's the name of a website right? But they have a social media account, they posted this post it was intended to be satire but obviously when they read it, they didn't understand that it was satire, believed it was factual information and it led to you know strong emotions, feeling upset which led to the posting. And you know, we know that you know, those types of things can lead to changing our attitudes, we're not certain to the extent at which it can impact our actual behaviors. We know attitudes can influence behaviors, but we have to do more research to connect those dots and make sure that there's a clear path So, that we better understand how fake news and misinformation, false information can impact consumers.

Vaile Wright: And I sort of feel like part of it is that there's just So, much information out there that it can be hard to decipher which is which. And what seems different to me about today is the way in which political figures are participating in this. People that we are supposed to trust in leadership roles just don't seem to be discerning the information either.

Chrysalis Wright: Well, you can't call everything fake news. Just because information doesn't necessarily align with your personal views that you have already doesn't mean that it's fake. We had a session this morning about fake news and one thing that was brought up is just because something is your truth does not necessarily mean it's the truth. There's a difference there. So, just because people disagree with you doesn't mean that the information that they're presenting is fake or false. It doesn't help that we are bombarded with all of this information all the time. A lot of the information that's you know kind of determined to be fake news is spread through social media. Almost everyone has a social media account that includes Facebook, it includes Twitter, it includes YouTube. So, YouTube is still considered a social media platform.

The information, you know, we see something on there most of the time the information that we view already agrees with views we have because the information that is presented to us is based on our previous likes and clicks and all of that anyways. That in itself is problematic because it does not present us with the whole picture on any topic. And if we only see one side of the story or whatever it is all of the time we begin to believe that that is all of the information that we have. But we come across information, it makes us feel emotional, we get upset about it, we think other people should have this information, So, we share it, we like it, we send it to all of our friends and family and then it just, the cycle just continues.

We don't have the tools right now to decipher all of this information that's coming at us and we live in a like a digital world where we want to know information right now. So, if you have a question, you can pull out your phone, you can google it, it gives you an answer and you want the information right then. We don't really pause to look at the source of the information, where it came from, the credentials for the source, you know we want our information immediately and that's that kind of feeds into the issue also.

Vaile Wright: Right, and I've heard people refer to it sort of as like it's not that people are bad or that they're even partisan it's more kind of like lazy thinking. Like we just don't go to the effort to actually figure out whether what we're looking at is true or not. And I thought what was interesting about this morning that was mentioned is that it's often individuals in the baby boomer generation. That are often retweeting or reading these sorts of fake news. It's not necessarily younger generations, and I come across that in my own family. I have older cousins where I see that they have liked something or shared it on their Facebook and I can tell it's not true. I think you were telling a story earlier about something you saw on Facebook.

Chrysalis Wright: Right, I was giving an example of how social media has been used to share fake news or false with misinformation. So, there was a post I came across a couple years ago, it was a picture of a wall, and it was maybe 2016-2017. It was a picture of a wall and it said something to the effect that you know, Mexico has the ability to protect its borders why can't we? So, the intent was to compare this wall that is supposedly in Mexico separating it from I believe Guatemala to the proposed border wall that's been you know proposed to be built here between the United States and Mexico. So, a couple of things, yes, it's a picture of a wall but it is not a picture and of a wall in Mexico or Guatemala. It's not a wall that separates those two areas, instead it's a picture of a wall that is in Israel, it was built in 2013, has nothing to do with our political issue whatsoever. But people saw it, they shared it, retweeted it and just it spread like wildfire. And you can see consumers they believe it, and they don't verify the source of the information and they want everyone to you know, they see this and they're like see if Mexico can protect their borders why can't we do the same, but that's not that's not real. That's fake news. That's false information, it's misinformation and it's misleading consumers. So, that's another thing in terms of how we define fake news. What's the intent of the author that put it together? So, if you tell me something, well I heard bla bla bla, if that's really what you heard and you really believe it you telling me does not necessarily mean you're sharing fake news, but the author, if the original author of that information knew it was false information, intended to deceive then that's different. So, it's the intent behind it. We can't we can't really blame everyone for sharing information that they come across on social media. We really need to look at where the information is originating from and the author's intent in creating it in the first place.

Vaile Wright: Right, because it's the intent of the author that matters, not the resharer or the retweeter who might just be doing it because like you said before it evokes some sort of emotional reaction in them and they felt compelled to share it with others or because you know it reaffirmed something they already believed in. I think the other thing that we were talking about this morning was this idea of wanting to be right.

Chrysalis Wright: Right, we all want to be right about everything.

Vaile Wright: So, it ends up becoming what we call in psychology a confirmation bias, So, that we seek out information that confirms the beliefs we already have as opposed to seeking out information that might counter it. Right and the algorithms on social media does not help that whatsoever, it makes it worse. So, I mean we've hit on this a little bit but like what are the consequences of, you know all this sort of misinformation and the negative intent around it, why do we care should we care, why does it matter?

Chrysalis Wright: If people start to believe false information then they start to doubt accurate information that is accurate. So, they start to just dispute scientific evidence. You know, they start to fully believe in this misinformation they start to kind of fall into numerous conspiracy theories and those types of things. And depending on the type of content that's in the fake news or misinformation that they're consuming, it can impact their attitudes.

So the research I've conducted has specifically looked at outcomes related to immigration attitudes, immigration policy attitudes and Islamophobia and what I found you know multiple times is that people who are exposed to negative images related to these particular you know hot topics, controversial topics through fake news tend to have, they developed more fake, more negative attitudes. So, it amplifies negative attitudes that they might already have. What we don't know is how the amplification of those negative attitudes how it impacts behaviors.

As a researcher, I'm interested in for instance the recent mass shootings that took place. I'm interested in better understanding the social media profiles of those perpetrators. I want to know exactly what they were looking at in terms of social media. What were they looking at on Facebook? What were they looking at on YouTube? Obviously they had negative attitudes, something is off, something is there. So, we all have biases and we all have you know our personal opinions but there's something different when people kind of take it to the next level and cause terror.

Vaile Wright: Right. Or you know, I'm thinking sometimes it can be politically slanted but there are other ways that fake news has had consequences like around vaccines, right? And so, you know you have these false stories around vaccines based off of false research in certain ways, but when you look at the real science, of course, it tells a different story. But at this point you almost can't rewind the clock. Like once people start to believe something and they have lost trust in institutions, then what do we do?

Chrysalis Wright: We need to better arm our consumers. We need to make sure that they are better educated in terms of media literacy. We need to make sure that they understand that sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes authors who put out information are trying to trick them. We need to arm them So, that they're aware of these facts, that it is not fake news. You know that they're aware of these facts and that they can better protect themselves. We need to make sure that consumers know how, because identifying information that's false is very hard, it's difficult. So, we need to make sure that consumers know how to pause, check the source of the information, where is it coming from. If they can't find the source just leave it because if you're not able to verify the source of the information I would just consider it false information and not even go there. But consumers also need to kind of, especially in terms of social media, pause when they see something that makes them emotional. Whether it's negative or positive emotion, pause for a minute think about what is it about this piece of information that's got me upset, why do I want to share it with other people and make sure that they understand that you know if you if you share it then to a certain extent you're somewhat you know responsible for spreading false information. So, if we can better arm our consumers and help them to be better able to identify false information, I think it will help a little bit. But once that trust is gone, we have to work to get it back.

Vaile Wright: And I think like you said it can be really challenging because the producers of the false information are using visuals and these provocative headlines and trying to go for shock, right So, that it gets you worked up and it gets you reactionary instead of pausing.

Chrysalis Wright: And that's exactly why false news or fake news is So, memorable, why it's persistent. I mean there's been research that has shown that even if you tell people okay the information that you just shared is false here is proof that it's false, here's a scientific study that proves the information you just told me is false, they still believe it. Because of how shocking it is because of how sensational it is it has more of an effect than real information. So, that in itself is part of the issue. People need to understand if you see a headline that just seems completely out of this world completely unrealistic it probably is, you know. The headlines should just be from more hard news or reputable news sources, they tend to just relay the facts. If you see something that is shocking whether it's images, the headline itself, the way that the information is shared then there's a reason for that you know that it makes it more memorable, but it doesn't make it true right, you know.

Vaile Wright: And I think you know in the wake of sort of this phenomenon some social media companies have tried to take counter measures right, sort of labeling things as false or putting tags on them. Seems like the research is pretty mixed on whether or not that's effective. Is that an accurate read?

Chrysalis Wright: Well for one when YouTube did that it totally messed up one of my research studies, So, I'm not.

Vaile Wright: So, you're not a fan?

Chrysalis Wright: Well I think we have to be aware of where the, who's the, who's to blame, right? Who's responsible for the information? So, you have social media platforms that don't want to be responsible for the sharing of misinformation that could potentially lead to whatever negative consequences. And I think that's why they have started to step in and start to block content and remove stuff like the Alex Jones YouTube channel, which is I was using that as a fake news example in a research study So, I had to stop data collection all together and kind of use what I already had, So, we'll see how that goes. But they did it because they don't want to be responsible for the information.

So but what we're looking at is not it is not a technological problem, it is not a social media problem, it is a people problem. You know, looking for information that already confirms what we believe, being drawn to information that is shocking, sensational, that causes us to be emotional, wanting to tell everyone information that we think we know, those are areas that are problematic that are kind of increasing the spread of social media, you know, the fake news through social media. So, we have to be very cautious about taking stuff down. Who makes the decision to take it down, you know, are they biased in some way? So, is that their bias that is leading them to want to remove content or do they know for sure, have they done their fact-checking and they know for sure that it's false information. So, it becomes kind of sticky because you know, we have the right to free speech, but that doesn't mean we have the right for hate speech for instance or free speech without consequences. So, there's a line and we have to as a society kind of figure out exactly where that is and what's protected and what isn't.

Vaile Wright: Do we have an administration that can do that?

Chrysalis Wright: I think something like that has to be a bipartisan decision. So, both sides of the aisle have to come together to kind of solve this, help solve this issue. And one thing we have to do is quit calling everything fake news. Just because I tell you something is fake news doesn't mean that it's fake. So, we have to stop throwing that term around as if, I mean we hear it every day. We have to stop that and pay attention and make sure that what we're sharing is factual information you know regardless of who it is, and just stay off Twitter.

Vaile Wright: She says after I've already tweeted out that I am here right now, doing this podcast. You know, one of the things you brought up earlier that made me think was around Alex Jones right and his YouTube channel. And I think one of the other motives around spreading misinformation is for profit. So, a lot of his, if you've ever watched his work is really around selling a lot of products that he has. And he gets people to click on his stuff and come to his page because he's being sensationalist and loud and at the end of the day he is really trying to sell you something. How, what role do you think that is, that sort of selling the profit component of sort of behind all of this spreading, the intent of this spreading misinformation.

Chrysalis Wright: Well, we see the for-profit issue in hard news or mainstream news also. Everything is for profit, right. So, even in mainstream, traditional news outlets they have commercials that they're trying to sell you in between news breaks and the way they present information is done in such a way where they want you as a consumer to watch their show rather than the other one So, that they can make more money. So, it kind of boils down to profit regardless of if it's hard news or fake news. Fake news gets a little bit more tricky because for instance yes Alex Jones was selling products and that type of stuff, but not everyone who creates fake news is getting a profit in that way, it doesn't always have to be a monetary profit. It could be well I want a lot of people to vote this particular way So, I'm going to create some sensational information and put it out there to try to convince people to do what I want them to do. To influence them in some in some way, it doesn't necessarily have to be a monetary issue.

Vaile Wright: So, you know for our listeners, other than being more media literate or media savvy, what can people do to help figure out what news is legitimate and what news might not be?

Chrysalis Wright: Well, you can fact check the news that would be helpful.

Vaile Wright: But let's say I don't have time to fact check the news?

Chrysalis Wright: Then you shouldn't be reading, then don't read it. Because we have to be wise consumers, you know, we live in an age where we want everything right now, we want everything instant. We don't really want to, we don't have time to do that. We're all working, everyone is busy. But we need to make the time. If we want accurate information, we have to work to get it. And one of the best things about social media and the internet is that we have all of the information we could possibly think of at our fingertips but it's how we're using those tools that starts to become problematic because people are creating information that's not real, its fake, it's false, and the more you spread it the more people start to believe it. So, we need to make sure that we're checking the source and we have to engage in some type of self-reflection. Why is this information important to me? How does it make me feel? Why do I want to share it? And we need to pause and really kind of consider those things before we share information we come across on social media, before we tell our friends and family. Why is it important to us?

Vaile Wright: I also thought it was interesting this morning talking about how we only maybe receive half of the story. And So, what that made me think about is can we be more inquisitive right as individuals? Can we ask ourselves okay, I've heard this part of the story, is there more, what's the and?

Chrysalis Wright: There's always more. There's always more and we do get half the story. So, even from like mainstream news sources CNN and Fox. Those are, both of those avenues are very biased. So, on the way here I was kind of flipping back and forth between how Fox News and how CNN was discussing the mass shootings that recently took place and the president's tweets and rhetoric and those types of things that have happened prior to and shortly after, and both of those sources are presenting the same story. Right, So, both of them have facts in there, but the way they're describing it, the slant they're putting on it and all of that is very biased. So, if you're only watching say CNN, you only get half the story, or if you're only watching Fox, you're only getting half the story. We need to make sure that we're getting our information from multiple sources, engaging in fact-checking, doing our own research. No one wants to do it, but you have to do it if you're going to be a responsible consumer. You know at some point it's our responsibility to make sure that what we believe as truth for ourselves is actually the truth.

Vaile Wright: Is there a reason to feel hopeful?

Chrysalis Wright: There's always reasons to be hopeful. Because we can always make a change, that's one of the things that's great about being people is if you see something that you don't like the way things are going then you can put in effort and energy to make a change. And we have, as a society, we have to all come together and decide that that's something that we want to do. If we don't then we're just going to see this type of thing just progress and probably snowball and just continuously get worse. But if as a society we come together and say okay we want to make sure that the information that we are getting is accurate, true information, then we can make sure that that happens.

Vaile Wright: So, it's on us.

Chrysalis Wright: On consumers, yes.

Vaile Wright: And probably some people in charge.

Chrysalis Wright: Hopefully. If we're passing laws and that type of thing it really has to be something that's bipartisan. They have to be able to put their political differences aside and figure out a way to work together. Like you can be Democrat, I could be Republican, that's fine. You have to be able to put your differences aside and work together to benefit society as a whole.

Vaile Wright: Right, and I think you know as we talked, society benefits from facts.

Chrysalis Wright: Yes, factual information is helpful.

Vaile Wright: So, that then you can make informed decisions about what you do. Well thank you So, much for being here today.

Chrysalis Wright: Thank you for having me.

Vaile Wright: I really want to thank Dr Wright for sharing your expertise on this really timely and important topic. If you liked what you heard today you can always email us with your ideas and thoughts at speakingofpsychology@apa.org. If you're interested in hearing more of our podcast you can get them on iTunes, on Stitcher wherever you get your podcasts. They're also available on our website SpeakingofPsychology.org. I'm Dr. Vaile Wright, it's really been a pleasure to guest host this podcast. I want to thank all of our listeners and everybody. Take care.