As the influence of fake news has begun to be better understood, society has begun exploring ways its impact can be mitigated.  Most proposals have revolved around social networks and other intermediaries doing a better job of detecting (and removing) it before it does too much damage.

Could our peers also play a part?  That was the question posed by a recent study from the University of Missouri.  They wanted to explore whether social dynamics had an impact on our ability to discern real news from fake news.

Volunteers were given a scavenger hunt style challenge whereby they had to answer various questions with the help of online sources and their own personal knowledge.  Despite both groups having equal access to the web, it transpired that the interactions between participants had the biggest impact upon group performance.

“We imagined that working in groups would actually help the students find the correct information, but that was not the case,” the researchers say. “In fact, group dynamics outweighed information access, and discussion and decision-making was more important than the facts.”

A little help from our friends

For instance, one of the groups did especially badly in large part because a couple of team members froze out the input of a third team member, despite them ultimately having the right answer.  By contrast, the group that performed best adopted a strategy of researching individually, before sharing their answers to come up with a collective answer.

The authors believe we might need to think afresh about the impact group dynamics have on the way we both identify and assess information we find online.  This can have a big impact in a range of scenarios, not least in classrooms, where the team believe teachers should pay particular attention to these findings.

“Students might need further instruction and guidelines on how to evaluate online information, especially on social media,” they say.  “Teachers might also consider creating guidelines for how groups will work together in these situations so that every student has the opportunity to be heard.”