Development of the ability to assess (fake) news about ecology from adolescence to older adults

Misinformation about ecology spreads rapidly in social networks where teenagers, as well as older adults, spend much of their time. Given that teenagers and older adults have cognitive specificities that could make them more or less vulnerable to fake news, in the present study, we investigated the development of the ability to discern fake news from real news about ecology from adolescence to older adults. Adolescents (15–18 years old), young adults (19–23 years old), middle-aged adults (30–45 years old), and older adults (65–80 years old) assessed fake versus real news on ecology and answered questions regarding their attitudes toward eco-friendly behaviors, the resources available to help them engage in these behaviors and their concerns regarding climate change. Finally, the participants completed the cognitive reflection test (CRT) to examine whether their analytical thinking skills were related to fake news detection. The results revealed that adolescents are better at detecting fake news about ecology than older participants are. Results confirmed that analytical reasoning is involved in media truth discernment at all ages and also revealed the valuable influence of the participants’ ecological profiles on the news valuations. This latter effect is, however, absent in adolescents, suggesting that the advantage in media truth discernment for teenagers might result from the critical analysis of information developed in secondary school lessons.