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MU Study Finds Social Groups Affect News Literacy

A recent MU study has found that social groups can affect an individual’s ability to tell fact from fiction online.

The study asked four groups of people to answer different questions about the history of MU’s campus. Isa Jahnke, the supervisor of the study, said although each test group had equal access to the internet, groups that worked individually were more successful than groups that worked together.

“We thought ‘oh groups will get it,’ but the groups had problems. The dynamics of these people in the groups influenced the ability to identify true from false information,” she said.

Doctoral candidate Michele Kroll, who also ran the study, was surprised by their findings.

“We thought that if you had a small group and two or three people found the same answer online, then they would agree to it, but that's not what happened at all,” she said.

At one point in the study, a test subject knew the correct answer to a question, but the group dynamics prevented them from getting it right.

“He was trying to find the proof online so that they could see it, but they had already made their decision, so they went against his judgment and they got it wrong ... It's very interesting how people can talk each other into things, or they don't want to listen to something that's factual.,” she said.

The researchers agree digital literacy — or the lack thereof — is the underlying problem.

“We're so busy in the world that we just search information and we don’t question the information. That’s the pitfall,” Jahnke said.