A new study led by Avriel Epps, assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, has found Black and Latino teens are more skilled than their White peers at identifying online misinformation, particularly when content is related to race and ethnicity.
Alongside co-authors from the University of Southern California, California State University, Northridge, and Rutgers University in New Jersey, Dr. Epps asked a sample of Black, Latino, and White adolescents to record how often they analyzed, responded to, or ignored race-related content on a daily basis for one week.
According to the study’s findings, Black and Latino teens were more likely to identify false claims and propaganda, as well as verify posts with credible sources. They were also more likely to challenge racist content by crafting their own social media posts and sharing articles from reputable sources that countered misinformation. White teens were less likely to question misleading posts regarding race.
“This work reveals that adolescents of color are already engaging in sophisticated forms of digital literacy,” said Dr. Epps. “They have developed these critical skills in many cases from their lived experiences navigating online racism, not necessarily from school-based instruction.”
She added, “The main takeaway for educators is that making your lessons culturally relevant matters regardless of what you’re teaching. Culturally responsive pedagogy matters in math. It matters in English and language arts. It matters for digital literacy and digital citizenship.”
A computational social scientist, Dr. Epps studies how bias in predictive technologies affects racial, gender, and sociopolitical identity development. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a master’s degree in data science and a Ph.D. in education with a concentration in human development from Harvard University.
