New HU study on the influence of fake news on the brain
Neurocognitive studies by researchers at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) show that headlines with emotional content influence our judgments about other people even when we consider the media source to be untrustworthy.
Rumours, half-truths and misinformation can be consumed and shared non-stop online and have an enormous reach. Although their truthfulness is questionable, they can have a significant impact on personal opinions and public discourse. Until now, however, little was known about the consequences of confrontation with such information on how it is processed in our brains and to what extent this neural process influences our judgments. New findings from neurocognitive psychology show that emotionally charged headlines exert a major influence on the way we process information and form judgments of others, even when we do not consider the news source credible.