Older adults' vulnerability to fake news, image manipulation and online deception: causes and interventions

老年人（60岁以上）接受新技术的速度往往比年轻人慢（Sourbati, 2009），而且在接受新技术时，他们的数字技能也较低（Bhattacharjee等人，2020）。这种数字素养的降低意味着老年人不太擅长区分被操纵的图像和真实图像（Nightingale et al., 2022），他们更容易受到假新闻（Moore & Hancock, 2022）和网络诈骗（Fraud on the Elderly, 2013）的影响。其他社会和认知因素也影响老年人的脆弱性，包括(I)过于信任，（II）社会孤立，（III）心理脆弱性和（IV）风险承担（Shao et al., 2019）。已经开发出干预措施来帮助老年人检测假新闻和被操纵的图像（Moore & Hancock, 2022; Nightingale et al., 2022）。然而，虚拟现实和增强现实等新技术的兴起可能会使老年人面临更大的风险。这个博士生提案的目的是：(a)研究方式和技术如何影响老年人对欺骗的脆弱性（在线文本vs.在线图像/视频vs.虚拟现实环境），(b)研究导致老年人脆弱性的社会和认知因素（信任；社会孤立；认知功能）以及(c)研究旨在帮助老年人减少脆弱性的干预措施的功效。博士学位将包括多项研究，每项研究都着眼于特定的技术背景和/或干预措施。每项研究将招募老年人（通过C4AR小组）和年轻人（通过SONA），并测量感兴趣的社会和认知因素。

Older adults (60+ years) often take up new technologies at a slower rate than younger adults (Sourbati, 2009) and have lower digital skills when they do (Bhattacharjee et al., 2020). This reduced digital literacy means that older adults are less good at discriminating manipulated images from real ones (Nightingale et al., 2022) and they are more vulnerable to fake news (Moore & Hancock, 2022) and online scams (Fraud on the Elderly, 2013). Other social and cognitive factors also affect older adults' vulnerability, including (I) being too trusting, (II) social isolation, (III) psychological vulnerability and (IV) risk taking (Shao et al., 2019). Interventions have been developed to help older adults detect fake news and manipulated images (Moore & Hancock, 2022; Nightingale et al., 2022). However, the rise of new technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, may put older adults at greater risk. The aim of this PhD student proposal is to (a) study how modality and technology influence older adults' vulnerability to deception (online text vs. online images/video vs. virtual reality environments), (b) study the social and cognitive factors that contribute to older adults' vulnerability (trust; social isolation; cognitive function) and (c) study the efficacy of interventions aimed at helping older adults reduce their vulnerability. The PhD will consist of multiple studies, each looking at a specific technological context and/or intervention. Each study will recruit older adults (via the C4AR panel) and younger adults (via SONA) and measure the social and cognitive factors of interest.