The Effects Of Need For Cognitive Closure And Feedback On Inaccurate Information Searching Behavior

Inaccurate information refers to inaccurate general knowledge information embedded in stories,novels and other materials.Such information is extremely misleading,and people will unconsciously believe and spread it after reading it,and even form false cognitive beliefs about the world.So researchers are exploring ways to mitigate the negative effects of inaccurate information.Information searching behavior is one of the most convenient ways to verify the accuracy of information.However,not all individuals will actively search or verify information through information searching behavior.What factors affect inaccurate information searching behavior? How to increase individuals’ inaccurate information searching behavior and reduce the negative impact of inaccurate information? These issues need to be discussed in depth.On the basis of previous studies,this study starts from the influencing factors of inaccurate information searching behavior to explore the above problems.Relevant theories show that whether individuals conduct information search is affected by their psychological factors.This includes not only the cognitive level,but also the metacognitive level.Metacognition is the upper level cognition that affects search activities,which is manifested as the individual’s regulation of search cognition.Confidence,as one of the indicators of metacognition,reflects an individual’s confidence in the accuracy of his own answer.Individuals with a low level of confidence in the current answer may conduct more information searching behaviors.Therefore,at the metacognitive level,confidence may affect the performance and results of individuals’ inaccurate information searching behavior.And on the cognitive level,the need for cognitive closure,as a motivational factor,reflects an individual’s desire to find a clear answer to a problem in an uncertain situation.In the process of inaccurate information processing,need for cognitive closure may affect their information searching behavior.Individuals with high need for cognitive closure tend to close themselves quickly and conduct less information search,while individuals with low need for cognitive closure tend to do the opposite.In addition,feedback is helpful for individuals to understand the gap between the current performance and the goal.This study continues the perspective of need for cognitive closure and explores whether the negative impact of inaccurate information can be reduced by giving feedback.In this study,four experiments were conducted to explore the influencing factors of inaccurate information searching behavior and the methods to reduce its influence.Study 1explores the influence of confidence at the metacognitive level on inaccurate information searching behavior,so as to control and exclude the influence of metacognition in subsequent experiments.Study 2 includes two experiments.On the basis of controlling confidence,it focuses on exploring the influencing factors at the cognitive level,and explores the influence of need for cognitive closure on inaccurate information searching behavior from the perspectives of trait and state.Study 3 gives feedback to individuals with different need for cognitive closure to explore whether feedback can increase information searching behaviors and reduce the influence of inaccurate information.The above research conclusions are as follows:(1)Confidence affected individuals’ inaccurate information searching behavior.Individuals with low confidence had a higher search rate than those with high confidence.(2)Need for cognitive closure affected individuals’ inaccurate information searching behavior.Compared with individuals with low need for cognitive closure,individuals with high need for cognitive closure had lower search rate and accuracy.(3)Feedback influenced the inaccurate information searching behavior of individuals with different need for cognitive closure.Compared with the group without feedback,the search rate and accuracy of individuals receiving different feedback were improved.