Vulnerability To Disinformation In Older Age

Abstract

Disinformation poses a significant challenge to contemporary society, as it has the potential to undermine the stability of democratic systems, put public health at risk, and undermine the credibility of science. We explore the question of whether certain groups of people are especially exposed to disinformation and, in particular, we focus on older people. We examine the purported impact of cognitive and linguistic factors, such as source amnesia and the need for consistency, the decline of pragmatic skills in recognizing intentions and decoding figurative language, as well as motivational factors like the need for affiliation. Taken together, these empirical data suggest that there may indeed be specific vulnerabilities associated with older age. This hypothesis calls for finding ways to protect a category of people who already suffer from numerous other vulnerabilities.