Acquiring knowledge: Epistemic trust in the age of fake news

This project will look at the social and psychological implications of the theory of epistemic trust (ET). The study will have two components: the first will be to develop a proof of concept looking at the relationship between vulnerability, psychopathology, attachment status, exposure to childhood adversity and ET. The second will look at links between reduced epistemic discernment, conspiracy mentalities, susceptibility to misinformation and fake news.

Current stage of project

After two successful pilots, the online questionnaires officially launched in June 2020, with a recruitment target of over 1,000 participants.

Research team and affiliations

The project is funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, and led by Chloe Campbell and Michal Tanzer. UCL colleagues involved in the project include Liz Allison, Patrick Luyten, Peter Fonagy, Thomas Booker and PhD student Elizabeth Li.