Misinformation

Widespread trust in vaccines often leads to higher vaccination rates, but vaccine shortages can deter even those with confidence in vaccines. Furthermore, while vaccine mandates can create an appearance of universal vaccination, people may remain hesitant, resulting in lower compliance than anticipated. Read More

Vanderbilt biologists Nicole Creanza and Kerri-Ann Anderson have developed a new mathematical model, rooted in cultural evolution, that represents vaccine hesitancy as a belief that can influence, but not perfectly predict, whether parents will decide to vaccinate their children. Read More

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently appointed Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development Lisa Fazio as a member of the Committee on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation about Science. Read More

Vanderbilt professor and researcher Lisa Fazio will lead an international collaboration of 80 misinformation scientists in a project to compare the effectiveness of eight common strategies used to combat false information on social media. Read More

Researchers from Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development ask two questions in a recent study related to the illusory-truth effect: Do adults learn during childhood to associate repetition as a cue for truth, and can their prior knowledge protect them from the effect? Read More

Lisa Fazio, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Peabody College, shares a few tips on how to avoid knowledge neglect and spreading misinformation. Read More

Psychological research demonstrates that noticing errors in what we read is often difficult, and that those errors can affect our later beliefs, even when we know they’re wrong. Read More