In parallel with its military invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government is waging a disinformation war. For example, Russia claimed its bombing of a hospital in Mariupol was staged, and that the news stories about innocent civilians murdered in Bucha were a diversion by the West to distract from the U.S. establishing biolabs in Ukraine. The dissemination of falsehoods by the Kremlin in Ukraine is nothing new. So what factors can help protect Ukrainian citizens against such disinformation campaigns?
A large body of research conducted in the U.S. shows that greater analytic thinking—the tendency to stop and think rather than simply going with one's gut response—is linked with the ability to distinguish falsehoods from truth. In a recent article, we tested whether this relationship was observed in Ukraine.
Ukraine stands out from other countries because of the sheer volume of disinformation attacks from Russia and its allies, whereas misinformation in Western democracies tends to be less organized and comes from domestic sources. Further, under Soviet communism, Ukraine's media outlets were a part of state propaganda efforts. The government used the media to maintain control of information. As a result, post-communist societies like Ukraine tend to have lower trust levels in the state and media institutions.
Despite the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's media market has remained weak. Journalistic standards are low. It is common for people with power to pay for favorable news coverage. Media owners often use their own money and resources to actively push their outlets to use news coverage to show support for their political patrons. That environment, combined with a growing disinformation campaign from the Kremlin and its supporters, has made it even more difficult for Ukrainians to tell the difference between truth and disinformation.
Given the deluge of disinformation Ukrainians have to contend with, we wanted to see if analytic thinking still helped people withstand the influence of these lies or if they are simply overwhelmed. In our study, we conducted online and face-to-face surveys (prior to the Russian invasion) of representative samples of Ukrainians. We assessed their level of critical thinking using logic problems with intuitively compelling but incorrect answers (such as, "When you are running a race and you pass the person in second place, what place are you in?"), as well as their belief in a variety of true and false claims about Russia and Ukraine. We drew the false stories from a database constructed by EU vs. Disinfo. We worked with local partners to select true stories. For example, we included true stories about Russia bombing hospitals in Syria, and falsehoods about Ukrainians supposedly infecting the Sea of Azov with cholera.
Our finding was hopeful. Despite low trust in government and media, weak journalistic standards, and years of exposure to Russian disinformation, Ukrainians overall are generally able to distinguish a wide range of Russian propaganda from factually-based content. Importantly, Ukrainians who engaged in more analytic thinking were better able to distinguish disinformation from true statements, even if they were generally pro-Russia. In other words, people who engage in analytic thinking are more likely to rate false stories as false and true stories as true, regardless of their political stance.
Our findings provide compelling evidence for the role of analytic thinking in improving resistance to disinformation. The fact that Ukrainians who engage in more reasoning are better at distinguishing falsehoods from truth, despite being bombarded with disinformation, emphasizes the power of reason and the importance of developing critical thinking skills. Already Ukrainians have created websites that debunk disinformation and provide accurate information, like Stopfake and Texty among others. Ukrainians can build upon these impressive efforts to even further insulate themselves from Russian propaganda with methods that promote analytic thinking.
Ultimately, it is still possible to protect oneself from disinformation even in the face of organized disinformation campaigns. Teaching critical thinking at all ages is of vital importance. We could all benefit from stopping to think about what we are hearing.
For Further Reading
Erlich, A., & Garner, C. (2021). Is pro-Kremlin disinformation effective? Evidence from Ukraine. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 194016122110452. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211045221
Erlich, A., Garner, C., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2022.). Does analytic thinking insulate against Pro-Kremlin disinformation? Evidence from Ukraine. Political Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12819
Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2021). The psychology of fake news. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(5), 388–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.02.007
Aaron Erlich is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. His current research interests include the impact of information and misinformation in developing countries, measurement, democratization, and experimental design.
David Rand is the Erwin H. Schell professor of Management Science and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. His work focuses on illuminating why people believe and share misinformation and "fake news," understanding political psychology and polarization, and promoting human cooperation.
