In this week's episode, written by guest author Christy Kestner, we explore the neuroscience of misinformation. We look inot what misinformation is, what happens inside the brain when we encounter misinformation, why misinformation can be so hard to correct, and some of the real-life consequences with misinformation - especialyl in relation to health. We close by discussing how we can combat misinformation, from correcting false ideas to protecting against inflammatory, misleading informaiton found online.

References:

• Bragazzi NL, Garbarino S. Understanding and combating misinformation: An evolutionary perspective. JMIR infodemiology. 2024 Dec 27;4(1):e65521. https://doi.org/10.2196/65521
• Piksa M, Noworyta K, Gundersen A, Kunst J, Morzy M, Piasecki J, Rygula R. The impact of confirmation bias awareness on mitigating susceptibility to misinformation. Frontiers in Public Health. 2024 Oct 15;12:1414864. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1414864
• Hassan A, Barber SJ. The effects of repetition frequency on the illusory truth effect. Cognitive research: principles and implications. 2021 May 13;6(1):38. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00301-5
• Schultz W. Dopamine reward prediction error coding. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience. 2016 Mar 31;18(1):23-32. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2016.18.1/wschultz
• Chau LS, Galvez R. Amygdala's involvement in facilitating associative learning-induced plasticity: a promiscuous role for the amygdala in memory acquisition. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience. 2012 Oct 10;6:92. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00092
• Vellani V, Zheng S, Ercelik D, Sharot T. The illusory truth effect leads to the spread of misinformation. Cognition. 2023 Jul 1;236:105421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105421
• Chan MP, Jones CR, Hall Jamieson K, Albarracín D. Debunking: A meta-analysis of the psychological efficacy of messages countering misinformation. Psychological science. 2017 Nov;28(11):1531-46. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617714579

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