Fake News on Social Media: People Believe What They Want to Believe When it Makes No Sense at All

Moravec, Patricia L.; Minas, Randall K.; Dennis, Alan R.

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3269541

Cited by 139 publications

(207 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…There is a paucity of research using psychophysiology to study fake news on SM. One forthcoming study has used neurophysiology to understand the effect of flagging false news on SM and confirmation bias [23]. This study showed specific cognitive patterns of confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance when individuals interacted with fake news on SM [23].…”

Section: Time Spent On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The effects of the propagation of false information can be far reaching, as individuals anchor on a priori beliefs in the face of evidence that directly contradicts it [23]. Upon learning that information initially thought to be true was actually false, people do tend to adjust their attitudes, but to varying levels [30].…”

Section: Fake News and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These results on emotional valence or arousal but did not factor in an individual's a priori beliefs. Past literature has shown differential processing of information according to beliefs both on SM and in collaboration [22,23]. An individual's confirmation bias would create an approach response for articles that conform with an individual's prior beliefs.…”

Section: Fake News and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With this increase of news SM feeds, users need to think more critically than ever before. However, most SM users are in a hedonic state when they use SM and are less likely to think critically [7,23]. This subsequently reduces the thoughtful interaction with the information and, instead of being more critical of the news story, SM users tend to view it as another form of entertainment [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Relatively few studies have examined psychophysiology of true and fake news on SM. One study has examined the neurophysiological correlates of fake news on SM, showing that propagation of fake news stories is driven by confirmation bias [11,23]. However, these studies did not examine the emotional responses generated by true and fake news online.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Approaching Fake News at the Expense of Truth: A Psychophysiological Study of News on Social Media

Kirkwood¹,

Minas

2020

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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In 2018, sixty-eight percent of adults in America obtained their news from social media sites. During the same period, the amount of fake news online has increased substantially, resulting in increased propagation of false information. The research literature is growing on the effects of fake news on social media, but few studies have examined psychophysiological responses to true and fake news on social media. This research utilizes psychophysiological measures, specifically heart rate variability and skin conductance, to compare the perceived believability of news headlines posted on social media. Our findings indicate that individuals exhibit increased levels of approach behavior to true and fake news on social media. Additionally, higher time spent on social media is related to an increase in approach behavior to fake news. These findings have important implications for research and practice.

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Section: Time Spent On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Fake News and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fake News and Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Approaching Fake News at the Expense of Truth: A Psychophysiological Study of News on Social Media

Kirkwood¹,

Minas

2020

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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Learning together out of climate change denial

Walker

2023

New Dir Adult Contin Educ

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Climate change denial is often rooted in an array of conspiracy theories with climate change itself viewed by some as the real conspiracy. While not all of us are climate change conspiracy theorists, it is upsetting for most of us to learn and accept that our climate is changing, that it is primarily human-caused, and that it is harming people, animals, and other living organisms. It is even harder to accept this new reality when it goes against our core and fundamental beliefs, and against the professed beliefs and positions of those groups with which we identify. The media-whether old or new-has not really helped educate, and has tended to reinforce what is termed 'myside' bias. Those of us in adult education know that presenting the correct information or facts is not enough to really teach people. Instead, I sense that learning to live together, to accept the painfulness of learning, and connecting in a shared concern for our fragile blue planet and what we have managed to create, needs to be part of the answer-as complex as this topic is.Shortly after waking up earlier this week, I sat up in bed, and scrolled down my newsfeed to read how, in the coming decades, melting "zombie ice" from Greenland was likely to lead to previously unthinkable levels of sea rising, potentially "entirely redrawing the map" of my city, Vancouver, BC (Mannie, 2022). The ocean is meters from my apartment building. It's enough for anyone to want to stick their head back under the covers, and pretend it isn't happening. As Kübler-Ross (1969) famously wrote, denial can often be the first way we cope with our own and our loved ones' death and dying. Climate change denial, then, seems like a pretty understandable response-it is a coping strategy that helps us deal with the overwhelming amalgam of difficult feelings that can arise when we ponder our own mortality, the death of species, and the suffering of fellow humans. On some level, most of us are climate change deniers. Greta Thunberg (2019) and Naomi Klein (2014) argue that ifThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

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Reasoning versus prior beliefs: The case of COVID‐19 fake news

Čavojová,

Lorko,

Šrol

2024

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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We conduct a survey on a large representative sample of Slovak population to examine the role of analytic thinking, scientific reasoning, conspiracy mentality, and conspiracy beliefs in trust in COVID‐19 fake news and willingness to share it. We find that the ability to distinguish between fake and real news about COVID‐19 is significantly negatively correlated with conspiracy mentality and with beliefs in pandemic‐related conspiracy theories. Analytic thinking is not a significant predictor. Although fake news is generally less likely to be trusted and shared than real news, when fake news is consistent with preexisting opinions, people are more willing to share it compared with belief‐consistent real news. We also find that people are mostly overconfident in their ability to distinguish between fake and real news, and we identify a subpopulation of people that refuse to get vaccinated who trust fake COVID‐19 news significantly more than real news. Thus, consistency with one's beliefs is the best indicator of trust in fake news and willingness to share such news.

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Fake News on Social Media: People Believe What They Want to Believe When it Makes No Sense at All

Cited by 139 publications

References 75 publications

Approaching Fake News at the Expense of Truth: A Psychophysiological Study of News on Social Media

Approaching Fake News at the Expense of Truth: A Psychophysiological Study of News on Social Media

Learning together out of climate change denial

Reasoning versus prior beliefs: The case of COVID‐19 fake news

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