23 February Seminar: Human-based fake news spreading, detecting, and fact-checking

BY theodorecarlsonwebster226 January 2024

The first network seminar took place Friday, 23 February at Edinburgh Napier Merchiston Campus. This seminar was focused on fake news spreading, detecting, and fact-checking in humans, with talks from Graham Wright, Alice Howarth, Ariana Modirrousta–Galian, Ted Carlson Webster, Henry Otgaar, Chantal den Daas, Stephan Lewandowsky (Online), Santosh Vijaykumar (Online), and Natalia Pasternak (Online).

Santosh Vijaykumar presenting on the importance of managing misinformation for public health.

Stephen Lewandowsky describing ideas about belief formation, and how we might be able to inoculate against misbelief in disinformation.

Ted Carlson Webster introducing his findings in neuroscience and meta-memory for fake news.

Ariana Modirrousta-Galian presenting her research on inductive reasoning approaches to preventing disinformation.

Chantal Den Daas describing research on how information can be more accurately communicated in public health messaging.

Henry Otgaar explaining the “zombie idea” of repressed memories. Somehow, despite the science, the idea keeps coming back.

Natalia Pasternak gave several examples of real-world misinformation and its impact.

Two different panel discussions occured between talks, with the first one examining the alignment of research with policy, and the second one getting a general list of policy recommendations to begin generating ideas for the network.