Fostering Critical Thinking to Fight Misinformation on Social Media During Adolescence

Fostering Critical Thinking to Fight Misinformation on Social Media During Adolescence

Professor Grégoire Borst
Professor of Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience of Education
Department of Psychology

University of Paris, France

October 30, 2024 (Wednesday)
16:45 – 18:00
Room 408-410, Meng Wah Complex, HKU
Chair: Professor Shelley Tong

Abstract:
The spread of online fake news is emerging as a major threat to human society and democracy. Studies to date investigated media truth discernment in adults but not in adolescents. Adolescents might be at greater risk to believe fake news in particular those shared on social media because of reasoning vulnerabilities.  We will present a set of studies from our laboratory that investigated 1) the development of media truth discernment and illusory truth effect from adolescence to adulthood, 2) whether the development of media truth discernment and illusory truth effect are related to the development of reasoning ability and 3) the effectiveness of a series of interventions based on fostering media literacy and critical thinking on media discernment and the ability to resist to conspiracy theory.
 

About the speaker: 
Grégoire Borst is a full Professor of developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience of education at the University of Paris. He is the director of the Laboratory for the study of Child Development and Education (CNRS) at La Sorbonne and a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He obtained his PhD in 2005 in Paris Sud University and was then a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University from 2006 to 2010. His work focuses on the role of cognitive and emotional control on the cognitive and socio-emotional development of children and adolescents and on learning at school and in everyday life. He has published more than 70 scientific articles and 6 books including two for children to explain the basics of the brain and the mind. He works in close collaboration with the educational community and is a senior member of the International Bureau of Education (IBE) at UNESCO & a junior fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF).

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