Short videos are highly attractive and are becoming increasingly popular among young adults due to their unique properties. However, short videos also pose a risk as users get used to surface processing, immediate gratification, and fast, unreflected thinking due to their ephemeral nature and favorable cost-benefit ratio. Therefore, short video use (SVU) may affect rational thinking, academic delay of gratification, and surface learning. In addition, informal education on social media like TikTok and Instagram is mainly presented in short videos. Short videos contain fast-paced visual and audio content condensed into a short length, forcing users to process information in both channels quickly. Based on the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, this should result in cognitive overload and impair information processing, hindering knowledge acquisition. Therefore, this series of studies aimed to examine the consequences of SVU on rational thinking, academic delay of gratification (ADOG), and a surface learning approach (Study 1) and examine the situational impact of watching a short video collection on those variables except ADOG (Study 2). Further, it was examined whether short video-based learning material is suitable for teaching low-complex material (Study 2). In Study 1, participants (n = 169) completed questionnaires regarding SVU, rational thinking, ADOG, and surface learning approach. For Study 2, participants (n = 123) took part in an online experiment with a 2 (short video collection; present vs. not present) x 2 (learning material; short video-based vs. text-based) between-subject design, completed questionnaires regarding SVU, rational thinking, surface learning approach and answered a quiz regarding knowledge acquisition. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.

Parallel to institutionalized approaches to tackle consequences of online misinformation,

individuals can be empowered to navigate the internet competently. This study tests the

effectiveness of a lateral reading intervention to boost internet users’ competence to discern

trustworthy from untrustworthy sources. In contrast to vertical reading – the in-depth

examination of a website – lateral reading is a strategy used by professional fact-checkers

in which they open new browser tabs to seek information about the trustworthiness of

the website’s source, outside the website itself. In addition to the effectiveness of lateral

reading for immediate trustworthiness discernment, we also test the decay of intervention

effects over a 2-weeks time period. The source-focused lateral reading strategy is compared against a claim-focused online search condition that was recently found to have backfiring effects and a control condition that receives no intervention.

Based on previous evidence, we test the following set of preregistered hypotheses:

• H1s: Lateral reading improves source trustworthiness discernment compared to control.

• H1c: Lateral reading improves claim credibility discernment compared to control.

• H2s: Lateral reading improves source trustworthiness discernment compared to control two weeks after the treatment.

• H2c: Lateral reading improves claim credibility discernment compared to control two weeks after the treatment.

• H3c: Online search reduces claim credibility discernment compared to control (i.e., backfire effect).

The experiment is conducted using a nationally representative German sample (N = 2,666), recruited by YouGov. The prevalence of untrustworthy news sources in people’s media diets before and after the intervention as well as lateral reading technique adoption is examined using web tracking data from the German YouGov Pulse panel (N = 436).

Theoretical Background

Misinformation poses substantial problems in today’s media landscape, with manipulative strategies exploiting cognitive biases to mislead individuals (Cook et al. 2023). Even highly educated citizens often need guidance to effectively resist those strategies. Psychological inoculation, a well-established intervention, exposes individuals to weakened versions of misinformation to enhance their resistance (Kozyreva et al., 2024). However, inoculation effects are suspected to suffer from limited long-term effects and increase skepticism towards all information (Modirrousta-Galian et al., 2023). Increased guidance and cognitive stimulation, often present in hybrid digital-analog settings, may increase the effects. This study integrates educational principles into an inoculation intervention in an automated hybrid learning environment in a museum, examining its potential to enhance analytic processing and credibility discernment.

Research Questions:

1. Does an inoculation intervention in a self-learning museum environment improve visitors’ misinformation strategy discernment?

2. How does the intervention influence participants’ tendency to engage in analytic versus intuitive information processing?

3. How do individual differences influence the effectiveness of the intervention?

4. Does the intervention have sustained effects beyond immediate exposure?

Methods

We conducted a quasi-experimental study at a German science museum, in a within- (pretest vs. posttest) and between-subjects (experimental vs. video vs. control) design. 674 visitors were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) an interactive, multimedia-supported museum exhibition utilizing educational inoculation principles, (2) short, established inoculation videos (Roozenbeek et al., 2022), and (3) a control condition with an unrelated exhibit. The intervention targeted five misinformation strategies: false dichotomies, ad hominem attacks, cherry-picking, impossible expectations, and pseudo-experts. Participants completed pre- and posttest assessments measuring their ability to discern manipulation, sharing, and analytic processing, while a subgroup participated in a delayed posttest. Additionally, individual differences, including persuasion knowledge, conspiracy thinking, and metacognition, were collected as covariates. The data was analyzed with multivariate Bayesian regression models.

Multi-screening, i.e., the simultaneous engagement in two or more screen-based activities, has become a prevalent media use behavior in the digital world (Xu & Wang, 2018), particularly in the combination of TV and smartphone usage (Wang et al., 2015). Research on multi-screening and multitasking has predominantly focused on its effects, highlighting mostly detrimental cognitive (e.g., impaired functioning; van der Schuur et al., 2015) and affective outcomes (e.g., reduced well-being; Yang et al., 2015). However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms that drive media users to engage in multi-screening.

We understand multi-screening as a context-specific form of media use: In line with decision theory, we propose that multi-screening occurs when users expect additional media engagement to enhance an ongoing but unsatisfying viewing experience (Fisher & Hamilton, 2021; Voorveld & Viswanathan, 2015). We integrate trait-level predictors (e.g., multitasking preference; Magen, 2017) and situational variables (for relevance see Schnauber-Stockmann et al., 2024) to better understand when and why users engage in multi-screening.

Using experience sampling methodology (ESM), we collected 2,092 observations from 123 students, tracking their real-time Netflix consumption through BWDAT. The dataset includes key situational factors, such as genre, viewing progression (start/end), usage duration (e.g., session length) as well as usage continuity (pausing, forwarding, interruptions). Participants completed event-based surveys on their momentary arousal state and concurrent screen activities, allowing us to capture intra-individual fluctuations in multi-screening behavior. We will employ multilevel modeling to analyze how momentary shifts in arousal, viewing context, and content characteristics predict multi-screening within individuals while accounting for between-person differences. Our findings will advance theoretical models of multi-screening and provide empirical insights into how real-world viewing contexts shape digital media engagement, offering valuable implications for media researchers and practitioners.

Anecdotal evidence, often referred to as the TikTok brain, captures concerns about how short-form video use negatively impacts users’ ability to sustain attention (Jargon, 2022; White, 2024; Zaveri, 2023). However, there is little to no research supporting such concerns. We replicate a pioneering study by Lin et al. (2024) finding a negative relation between short-form video use and sustained attention and extend their work by distinguishing between subjective and objective measures.

Sustained attention refers to the ability to consciously process external stimuli over an extended period of time (Robertson et al., 1997). It encompasses the ability to sustain attention (trait) and its situationally determined fluctuations (state; Parasuraman, 1998). We build upon previous ideas of constantly fluctuating sustained attention states (Cheyne et al., 2009), connecting these states to studies on mind wandering (Shin et al., 2024) and distractions caused by social media use (Siebers et al., 2022).

We distributed a real-time attention test and follow-up online survey among a German sample (N=385). The attention test captures objective sustained attention (Robertson et al., 1997), by requiring participants to respond as quickly as possible to 225 numerical stimuli (numbers 1 to 9) while withholding their response for the number 3. Different performance measures of this task such as different types of errors, reaction time and reaction time variance indicate different attentional states (Cheyne et al., 2009), allowing fine-grained insights into the relationship between attention and short-form video use. Subjective sustained attention was measured by four items each from the Attention-Related Cognitive Scale (Cheyne et al., 2006) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale-Lapes Only (Carriere et al., 2008). Participants estimated their short-form video use (in h and min), capturing subjective use. For objective short-form video use participants reported their in-app TikTok screen time. We employed correlational and regression analyses to test and compare effects.