Mastering critical thinking skills is strongly associated with the ability to recognize fakeness and misinformation

Simone Redaelli¹Nikola Biller-Andorno¹Sophie Gloeckler¹Jessica Brown²Giovanni Spitale^1*Federico Germani^1*

• ¹University of Zurich, Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
• ²Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

In today's world of information overload, people need skills to quickly and critically evaluate online content; they must be able to consider the credibility and quality of information as well as recognize fake and misleading information. Here, we operationalize critical thinking skills into 6 measurable concepts (i.e., causation and correlation, independent data and replicates, reproducibility, credibility of sources, experimental control, and statistical significance), and we explore whether teaching these 6 concepts with an intervention based on educational videos enhances critical thinking and/or resilience against fakeness (fake tweets) and misinformation. Results from our research reveal that, in a large pre-registered randomized trial, pre-intervention understanding and application of critical thinking skills concepts strongly correlates with participants' ability to identify fake tweets and misinformation; however, exposure to educational videos does not enhance trained participants' understanding and application of critical thinking skills concepts, nor their proficiency in detecting fakeness and misinformation when compared to untrained controls. There is a pressing need to develop innovative interventions that equip individuals to respond effectively to misinformation. As misinformation-specific critical thinking skills remain poorly understood, we anticipate that tools aimed at fostering these competencies could play a significant role in enhancing the public's ability to recognize accurate information from misinformation.