They’ve grown up online. So why are our kids not better at detecting misinformation?

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 375 points –
They’ve grown up online. So why are our kids not better at detecting misinformation?
thestar.com

They’ve grown up online. So why are our kids not better at detecting misinformation?::Recent studies have shown teens are more susceptible than adults. It’s a problem researchers, teachers and parents are only beginning to understand.

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Very often this shit is designed by people with psychology degrees.

I thought marketing and media people generally have communication degrees.

User researcher is a job that’s becoming more common at tech firms, and usually requires a psychology degree or similar

You don't need a full penetration of psychology degrees, just a sufficient amount.

The specific field is marketing psychology, it's a subset of industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology.

I'm not going to mention the company I work for, but I can verify that psychology is being used to advertise to kids. Mass manufactured food industry.

They will pick out very specific colours, mascot attributes, shapes and more to draw kids attention.

I shit you not, there's a certain cookie brand with a happy bear on the box that has eyes that look upwards. The entire purpose of this is to subconsciously make kids think that they're making eye contact with the happy mascot, so they'll trust it more. Certain colours are also believed to trigger more hunger in consumers. They play on so many factors in advertising that it isn't funny.

This is just one example, but this is definitely a thing that is happening in many companies.