Young people in Montenegro doubt their ability to recognize disinformation, and "prebunking", which, based on previous experience, warns them of potential manipulations in the public space, does not have the desired effect in our country.
Nevertheless, young people in Montenegro are relatively successful in differentiating misinformation from true content, with misinformation related to health aspects and previous mistrust in the system having a strong foothold among that part of the population.
This is the conclusion of the experiment conducted by the Damar Institute as part of the project "Psychological inoculation against disinformation from Russian sources in Montenegro", which was financed by NATO.
Research has shown that young people (19-24 years old) probably do not read information in its entirety, but also that they have a high degree of previously formed beliefs based on misinformation.
"It is an interesting fact that in Montenegro it is not a rule that those with more education are more resistant to manipulative content," said Damar.
Also, when it comes to political preferences, there is no political polarization between the so-called "pro-Serbian" and "pro-Montenegro" bloc, which is "a clear indication that disinformation is a problem that equally affects the entire society", the statement added.
However, misinformation from Russian sources more often affects those young people who have pro-Russian foreign policy views. Thus, respondents who believe that Montenegro "should have closer ties with eastern countries" were more inclined to support pro-Russian disinformation than other respondents.
On the other hand, respondents with a pro-Western orientation rate disinformation related to Russia somewhat better.
"Research shows, among other things, that the presence of misinformation affects the political reasoning of young people, which can have enormous consequences in the form of additional strengthening of polarization in society and mistrust of institutions," notes Damar.
They explained that "prebunking" is a proactive strategy to combat misinformation that relies on preparing the individual to recognize before they are exposed to false information. "It is based on the principle of 'psychological inoculation' - similar to vaccination, where people are introduced to smaller doses of deceptive techniques (eg use of fear, polarization, false authority) and ways to recognize them," it said. According to that theory, "prebunking" should allow them to develop a resistance to misinformation and reduce the likelihood of being misled.
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