Expose children to misinformation

In another test, they were shown a three-eyed alien, then a series of the same aliens, but with sunglasses hiding their eyes.

The child was asked if these aliens always had three eyes, but, before answering, he had the opportunity to remove the characters’ glasses to check.

Healthy skepticism

What the researchers found was that children who were presented with a first book consisting only of real information were less likely to check before answering the question.

“Children can adapt their level of skepticism based on the quality of information they have seen before,” says one of the co-authors, Evan Orticio, in the University of California press release.

This project is part of a series of recent research which revealed that, in the United States for example, a third of nine-year-old children have already used a social network. And that teenagers encountered health misinformation on TikTok just minutes after creating their account.