Profiling adolescents' vulnerability to racial misinformation: An hybrid intervention aimed at promoting mediated intergroup contact

Abstract

This study addresses the issue of adolescents' susceptibility to racial misinformation, testing a socio-analytical intervention within an educational community through the inducement of analytical processing of misleading news on one side, and mediated contact on the other. Rolling Minds web app has been designed to implement a hybrid schools intervention thanks to which classmates engage with conversational agents, guiding them in deconstructing racial stereotypes, reframing misleading narratives and empathizing with immigrants' point of view. All the intervention activities aim to enhance intergroup contact. For this purpose, in this study, which involved 208 young participants (mean age 14.65; SD = 0.74), we pursued two research objectives. Firstly, by employing a person-centred approach, our first research question (RQ1) is to identify subgroups of adolescents based on their propensity to engage in analytical reasoning, stereotypical beliefs and self-transcendence values, finding different vulnerability clusters to racial misinformation. In relation to the emerging profiles, their reactions to the misleading news were initially observed (ie, sharing and fact-checking). Secondly, regarding the second research question (RQ2), through path analysis we aim to understand whether and how adolescents characterized by different profiles vary in performing activities of socio-analytical intervention aimed at enhancing contact intentions. These results can guide the development of tailored hybrid educational strategies to engage young people in approaching racial online misinformation in a more reflective and unbiased manner, considering the adolescents' individual differences in vulnerability to racial hoaxes.