Gordon Pennycook

Gordon Pennycook is a researcher focused on the cognitive psychology of misinformation and reasoning. He investigates how analytical thinking, cognitive reflection, and individual differences in reasoning ability relate to susceptibility to false information and conspiracy theories.

Key works

• The Science of Fake News (2018) — Foundational multidisciplinary review establishing the scientific framework for studying fake news
• Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media (with Rand et al., 2020) — Demonstrates that simple accuracy nudges nearly triple truth discernment when deciding what to share on social media.
• Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online — Shows that subtle reminders to focus on accuracy increase sharing of accurate news across six experiments and a Twitter field experiment.
• Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter — Cognitive reflection correlates with behavior on Twitter — field evidence linking CRT to discerning social media behavior
• Lazy, not biased: Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning — Lazy, not biased (with Rand) — finding that analytic thinking, not partisan bias, better explains fake news susceptibility.

Areas of research

• Cognitive reflection and analytic reasoning
• Misinformation and fake news belief
• Individual differences in thinking styles