Why are older people more vulnerable to online rumors?

Nowadays, we play with our phones every day, and even our parents start to use their phones to browse various public accounts and short videos whenever they have time. As a form of leisure and entertainment, it is not bad for the elderly to browse their phones to kill time and learn something new.

However, when parents start to frequently access the Internet, I believe many people have this worry: parents always forward various rumors that seem exaggerated and outrageous in family groups and friend circles, such as "You can treat high blood pressure without spending money, just one egg can solve it" and "A wild vegetable is a universal anti-inflammatory medicine, suitable for people aged 1 to 80 years old" and other pseudo-health content, as well as gimmicky headlines such as "Experts predict that this big thing will happen in 2025".

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Although these pseudoscience and rumors are "fake" at first glance, they can easily win the trust of the elderly at home. Not only are they forwarded everywhere among relatives and friends, but sometimes they are even deceived by the marketing routines hidden in them and become the target of some malicious marketing agencies. So why are the elderly more likely to be harmed by online rumors and scams, and how to deal with them? Let's talk about it in detail today.

Why are older people less resistant to rumors?

Psychological research shows that the reason why the elderly are easily deceived by rumors is not because they have become "stupid". As the saying goes, an old person in the family is like a treasure. The elderly have richer life experience and knowledge, and their reflection ability, emotional sensitivity, and cautious actions are better than those of young people. The elderly are more vulnerable to the harm of online rumors. In fact, the reason lies in the differences in information processing characteristics and social environment between the elders and the younger generation. Let's introduce them separately below.

1. Decreased information processing ability

As they age, the elderly's cognitive abilities such as attention, memory and flexibility of thinking decline, making it more difficult for them to process complex information and quickly filter out useless information. At this time, the brain is more inclined to believe simple and straightforward information, and rumors are usually presented in a simplified and exaggerated form to make them more attractive. Therefore, when faced with health rumors that seem scientific but actually lack basis, the elderly may find it difficult to quickly distinguish the truth from the false, and it is not easy for them to detect the loopholes, making them more likely to believe them.

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Studies have shown that when older people make decisions in uncertain situations, they are more likely to be influenced by external information rather than their own cognitive judgment than younger people. This means that when older people read health advice that sounds authoritative and reasonable, they may not immediately doubt it, but tend to accept the information, making them more likely to be deceived by rumors.

2. Emotional needs and altruistic thinking prevail

Other studies have shown that when making choices and decisions, the elderly pay more attention to emotional and positive information, and they also value and need emotional connections with relatives and friends. When the elderly share health information, they are not only concerned about these issues rationally, but also a way to express care. When they think that a piece of information may help their relatives and friends, they will be eager to share this information out of concern, and will not bother to verify the authenticity of the information. This emotional drive of "better to believe it" allows false health information to spread more quickly among the elderly.

At the same time, we also found that among the elderly, sharing health information seems to be an important way for them to connect with each other. This information often triggers discussions among peers and builds a sense of collective identity. For the elderly, not only does forwarding to others bring satisfaction, but other elderly people's likes will also enhance this satisfaction, further promoting their forwarding behavior.

3. The information source is more single

With factors such as physical decline, retirement, and children living independently, the scope of activities and social circles of the elderly will gradually shrink. WeChat groups, Moments, and other channels have become their main platforms for obtaining external information, making it difficult for them to access diverse viewpoints and authoritative sources of knowledge. In today's self-media era, the threshold for publishing information is almost zero, which inevitably leads to a mixed bag of information sources on major platforms. Not only does it make it easier for the elderly to be exposed to unverified rumors, but also, when this information is forwarded from relatives and friends they trust, it is difficult for them to doubt this information.

4. Blind trust in “experts”

The way the elderly obtain and process information is also affected by cultural background and generational differences. Compared with young people, the elderly may be accustomed to obtaining information through word of mouth or traditional media, and lack sufficient understanding of the characteristics of information dissemination on social media. Surveys and studies have shown that 76.3% of the elderly trust the Internet as a source of health information. They tend to equate the information on the Internet with the authority of traditional media in the early years and believe that this information is also reliable.

Rumors disguised as scientific knowledge often take advantage of the cultural background of the elderly, adding information such as "experts" or "research" in titles and articles to make them appear more authoritative and convincing. Although these so-called "expert" statements have no scientific basis, due to the blind trust of the elderly, they rarely verify the source of this information and are prone to forward these rumors as facts.

Help the elderly, you can do this

As mentioned earlier, the fact that the elderly are easily influenced by rumors is actually related to many factors, many of which are related to the characteristics of aging itself. It is difficult for us to fundamentally change or solve these factors, but we can still use some simple and feasible methods to help the elderly in our family improve their ability to discern information and reduce the forwarding and spread of rumors.

1. Talk more with elders about online information.

When many young people see their elderly family members forwarding some obviously false pseudo-scientific information, their first reaction is to deny and criticize it, pointing out that it is a rumor and asking the elderly not to believe it or forward such things. The elderly either laugh it off or criticize the young people's "ignorance", but they continue to forward these rumors.

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In fact, for the elderly, directly criticizing the information they forwarded is not very effective. A more effective way is to guide them in an open way to gradually realize that the information may not be true, such as asking them "Who is this expert?", "Where did you see this?", "Is this really useful for health? How does it work?", etc. Encourage them to think twice about this information, and as young people, we also join in the discussion to help the elderly cognitively screen and identify information, and develop the habit of questioning the source and authenticity of information.

2. Recommend authoritative and reliable information channels

When accessing the Internet, the correct guidance required by the elderly and minors is actually similar. We will use the "minor mode" to filter information suitable for children. We can also actively recommend some authoritative and reliable health and news information channels to the elderly, such as the accounts of Science Popularization China and Science Debunking on major social media platforms. Not only can they obtain information from these reliable channels, but they can also search and verify the authenticity of the information here, reducing their exposure to rumor information.

3. Young people are the first to check the information

Elderly people often get emotional support from their peers, so they are used to forwarding information in WeChat groups or Moments to stay socially active. We cannot and do not need to stop their sharing behavior, but this does not mean that we cannot participate in this process. If the elders are not good at distinguishing the authenticity of information, we can encourage them to share any health or wellness information with their children or family members as soon as they encounter it, instead of forwarding it immediately. For example, tell them, "There are too many scammers now. If you see any new information, you might as well send it to me first. I will help you check whether it is reliable." This will not only not dampen their social enthusiasm, but also increase the connection between relatives and reduce the spread and adverse effects of rumors. It can be said to kill three birds with one stone.

4. Encourage the elderly to share their life experiences

Many elderly people forward rumors because they want to participate in conversations and gain recognition in the group, but forwarding online information is not the only way to socialize. We can encourage them to share more of their life experiences, past anecdotes or family stories, help them find other ways to socialize, and reduce their dependence on forwarding online information to maintain socialization. When the elderly no longer forward information simply for social connections and recognition, they are more likely to question some information that is obviously pseudoscience, and will be more willing to verify the authenticity of the information again, thereby reducing the impact of rumors.

In short, the proliferation of rumors is actually an inevitable side effect brought about by the rapid development of the Internet. Although the elderly may be more susceptible to rumors, the reason is that they have undergone certain changes in cognitive abilities and desire more emotional support and connections, which leads them to indiscriminately forward various information that they think is "beneficial" to others.

Therefore, we may not be able to eliminate all rumors, but by participating in the Internet life of the elderly and providing them with more companionship, support and guidance, we can effectively prevent them from believing in online rumors and reduce the risk of being deceived.

References

[1] Shang, L., Zhou, J., & Zuo, M. (2021). Understanding older adults' intention to share health information on social media: the role of health belief and information processing. Internet Research, 31(1), 100-122.

[2] Ji Lingling, Peng Huamao. (2016). The influence of emotional information and intrinsic motivation on the decision-making process of the elderly[J]. Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics, 43(8):758-767.

[3] Zulman, DM, Kirch, M., Zheng, K., & An, LC (2011). Trust in the internet as a health resource among older adults: analysis of data from a nationally representative survey. Journal of medical Internet research, 13(1), e1552.

Author: Chen Yufeng, Master of Developmental and Educational Psychology

Review | Yang Xiaoyang, Associate Professor, School of Psychology, Sichuan Normal University