Misinformation and Its Relationship to Intellectual Humility, Political Orientation, and Discernment Using a Dual-Process Paradigm
Abstract
Misinformation is an important issue and one that has been studied in a variety of ways. This study will examine the interactions among discernment, intellectual humility, and political orientation in misinformation susceptibility. I predict that a) discernment will reduce misinformation susceptibility b) Intellectual humility, the recognition of one’s cognitive fallibility and openness to revising beliefs, will mitigate the effect of misinformation susceptibility; and c) Political orientation will positively correlate with misinformation susceptibility along the subscales of General Authoritarianism and Social Control. Participants will complete a two-response paradigm as implemented by Bago et al. (2020), with a one-response baseline condition and a two-response experimental condition. This study also serves as an extension and will implement instruments measuring misinformation susceptibility, intellectual humility, and political orientation. Regression analyses will examine main and interaction effects, exploring whether intellectual humility mitigates cognitive rigidity associated with authoritarian and control-oriented ideologies. This research aims to advance understanding of metacognitive traits and ideological factors in shaping decision making, with implications for addressing misinformation in polarized environments.