: This theoretical paper examines whether acquiring better literacy skills may help people to be less vulnerable to various types of information disorders such as fake news or conspiracy theories. We start this venture by looking, first, at the relationships between vulnerability to information disorders and literacy (or, more generally, formal education), and second, at the literacy-induced transfer effects on cognitive skills. Then we will comment on some interesting findings made within the framework of an experimental project in which we examined subliterate adults and adolescents. Grounded on these results, we conjecture on the relationships between literacy, logical reasoning, critical thinking and endorsement of conspiracy theories.
Definimos o conceito de literacia e ilustramos o impacto desta nas capacidades cognitivas, em particular de memória e de compreensão da linguagem. A seguir, consideramos a hipótese de que a literacia contribui para elevar a qualidade e a profundidade do pensamento crítico. Este, por sua vez, sustenta a capacidade de autodefesa intelectual – em termos de ciência cognitiva, de “vigilância epistémica” – relativamente às fake news e a outras manobras de desvirtuação dos fatos ou de propaganda mentirosa. Finalmente, são discutidos os resultados de pré-testes de um projeto experimental em que diversos grupos de adultos subletrados receberão treinamento das capacidades de literacia e de pensamento crítico.
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