Work

Reducing Blind Spots? Performance Feedback Reduces Relative Confidence but Does Not Improve Subsequent News Discernment

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The public’s ability to discern the veracity of news has attracted substantial interest. Lack of metacognitive awareness (i.e., knowing one’s skill level) is one barrier to improving this skill set. Performance feedback could reduce overconfidence and spur differential responding, or adopting a new evaluation strategy, by providing such information. We randomized the provision of feedback (with the feedback message determined by the respondent’s actual performance in a preliminary headline evaluation task) to test this proposition (N = 1,846). We found that feedback reduced relative confidence -- to a similar extent for both below and above average performers. However, this reduced relative confidence did not translate into improved performance on a subsequent discernment task. Notably, when re-contacted 1 week later (N = 668), the main effect of reduced relative confidence persisted. These results suggest that although relative performance feedback may target self-assessments, more constructive feedback may be required to improve discernment performance.

Source: Collabra Psychology

DOI: 10.1525/collabra.138652

Authors: Benjamin Lyons, Ariana Modirrousta-Galian, Sacha Altay, Nikita Salovich

Institutions: University of Utah, University of Southampton, University of Zurich, Northwestern University

Language: English

Topic: Misinformation and Its Impacts

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $975

Funder: University of Utah