It’s not just gen Z – older adults need help spotting online misinformation too
Given the ongoing and often heated debate about banning social media for under-16s, it’s easy to assume that young people are the only group at risk of online harm. Misinformation research often focuses on younger people, and multiple studies do identify younger groups, such as generation Z, as vulnerable to online deception.
But evidence shows that older adults are just as, if not more, likely than younger generations to believe misinformation. Despite the spread of misinformation online, around 15% of adults rarely or never consider if news items are true. Indeed, adults aged 65 and older shared nearly seven times more fake news links during the 2016 US election, in comparison to younger users. Older adults may be more at risk of believing falsehoods due to changes such as memory loss and lower digital skills.
In 2024, nine in ten people in the UK reported seeing misinformation on social media. Yet only 3% of the population had taken a media literacy course. While there is working being done to ensure technology is accessible, users must have the skills and confidence to recognise if they are being deceived.
My new paper reviewed studies which delivered misinformation training to older adults aged 50 and over. My colleagues and I identified which approaches improved misinformation detection, but also noted that some had the opposite effect.
1. Game-based approaches
BadNews is a free online video game developed by researchers at the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. Players take on the role of the scammer to learn the techniques used to deceive people. Playing BadNews improved misinformation detection across different age groups and cultures. The improvement lasted longer when feedback was provided immediately after playing.
Another game called Spot the Troll trained older adults 60-plus to identify “troll” accounts, which are online accounts often used to spread false information anonymously. This game provided what researchers call a cross-protection effect – learning to spot trolls also improved participants’ ability to identify false news.
2. Correcting misinformation
In a study from the Netherlands, users watched a video from trusted doctors and scientists, showing others getting vaccinated and debunking common misconceptions about vaccines. Afterwards, older adults were less likely to believe vaccine myths.
This study made use of corrective information – accurate information that helps people replace false beliefs formed after encountering misinformation. Through a process known as debunking, corrective information explains what was incorrect and provides the accurate facts instead.
Read more: Why people believe misinformation even when they’re told the facts
Graphics from the World Health Organization have been found to support the perceived credibility and sharing of corrective information across age groups in the UK and Brazil.
Addressing health misinformation among older adults is particularly crucial due to increased risk of serious illness. By stating why misinformation is inaccurate, detailed corrections can provide more long-term benefits than brief retractions, which usually do nothing more than label a claim as false. However, this sustained belief change was less common among those aged 65-plus compared to those aged 50-64. Similarly, the benefits of corrections are reduced if misinformation is encountered again afterwards.
3. Developing literacy skills
Information and media literacy courses teach people the skills needed to judge information effectively. One study found that MediaWise for Seniors, a media literacy course in the US, improved older users’ ability to judge the truthfulness of headlines. Users also showed an increased likelihood of performing research about the headline.
In Spain, engagement with a similar course improved older users’ detection of true information. Although people felt more confident in their decisions, the researchers labelled this as overconfidence – their actual detection of false information did not improve as much. Still, the course did help people to recognise when a headline was politically biased.
What more needs to be done?
Concern about misinformation is high, with older adults particularly worried about threats to the legitimacy of health and medical information, plus UK politics and social issues.
Political misinformation contributes to unfair election outcomes when fake news sways voter opinion. Amid the 2016 US election, fake stories favouring Donald Trump were shared 30 million times on Facebook, with people aged 65-plus shared sharing more fake news during this period. Older adults have also been found to show higher partisan bias. This means that they are more likely to trust content which agrees with their political views.
Because voting is more common among older people, there is a risk of democracy being swayed by fake stories – especially those which feel believable because they align with what users already think, even when they’re inaccurate.
Finally, researchers of media and information literacy must develop a greater understanding of how the ageing process can affect misinformation detection. While some older adults may be more susceptible, we should not assume this applies to all people over a certain age.
Multiple studies we looked at reported high dropout rates, where participants had not completed the full training course or experiment. We should therefore identify why older users do not complete misinformation training which they initially chose to take part in.
People of all ages need to feel confident in identifying when they are being deceived. But, while detecting fake news is valuable, we must not forget the importance of being able to identify true news. True content often spreads at a slower rate and taking part in misinformation interventions can increase scepticism.
In other words, misinformation detection training can lead people to become more cautious of accurate information. Clearly, achieving the right balance is essential – people should feel confident identifying misinformation without being discouraged from engaging with true content.
Holly Barnett receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).