Abstract
The surging infodemic of COVID-19-related rumors constitutes a tremendous societal challenge during the pandemic.Prior work has focused primarily on the psychological aspects of rumors, such as beliefs and behaviors evoked by rumors and the continued influence effect of rumors.Studying the brain activity of individuals who detect rumors is a straightforward method to comprehend how rumors are processed.However, Studies have consequently been scarce using such a method.In this study, we performed a trial to gather data on behavior and EEG activity while identifying rumors.Participants completed a task assessing credibility, where they read and evaluated the credibility of 80 randomly presented rumors.Only 22% of participants were able to identify false rumors more accurately than random chance in our study.The ERPs findings indicate that truth decisions elicit increased negative ERPs (N400) compared to false decisions, while false decisions result in larger positive ERPs (P2, P3, and LPP) than truth decisions.Furthermore, our research discovered gender disparities in information processing linked to brain function, potentially resulting from varying strategies utilized.Men showed greater positive P2 and improved N400 compared to women.Females exhibited greater P3 and LPP amplitudes than males when detecting the rumors.This study adds to existing research by being one of the initial efforts to explore the changing patterns of brain activity while processing rumors during the COVID-19 outbreak, and uncovering gender disparities in decision-making regarding rumors.