When is reliable data effective? The role of media engagement in reducing the impact of fake news on worry regarding terrorism

Stories worth sharing – why do people spread news online?

“…Previous studies propose the same effect of context-specific abilities playing a more critical role than general attitudes, beliefs or political opinions. In a previous experimental design, numeracy (the ability to understand and work with numbers) was more effective than political affiliation or personal standpoints for properly assessing claims regarding social or political events (Rosu et al, 2021). Similarly, in the current study, Internet skills can be considered the most relevant context-specific abilities, overcoming conspiracy ideation, altruism, U&G motives or pass-time coping strategies.…”

“…Moreover, research indicates that general cognitive abilities, such as analytical or critical thinking, are overthrown by their context-specific correspondence. Presumed knowledge about the topic is more relevant than analytical thinking when processing specific news content (Rosu et al, 2021), and numeracy is more relevant than analytical thinking for understanding statistical proposals about social events (Rosu et al, 2021). When analyzing different attitudes toward news sharing online, the critical attitude is best underlined by online media literacy.…”

“…Even though both accurate and inaccurate communications can trigger worry, misinformation can have a greater malintent to direct readers' worry toward distrust (Ravenelle et al ., 2021), hate (Schäfer and Schadauer, 2018), anxiety (Dobson-Lohman and Potcovaru, 2020) and to distort worldviews (Sotirovic, 2001; Gerbner, 1969). This discussion is most relevant considering the facile methods to trigger emotions with simple techniques such as language manipulation (Rosu et al ., 2021; Thompson et al ., 2019a, b; Zhang and Ghorbani, 2020).…”

“…Table 1 summarizes participants' demographics. Participants were university students, recruited from two faculties from (Rosu et al. , 2021), and they were rewarded with course credit for their participation in the experiment.…”

“…The extant research argues for context-specific critical thinking tools derived from critical thinking (Pennycook and Rand, 2019), deliberate attention and proactivity (Allcott and Gentzkow, 2017). Prior engagement with the news topic may be the context-specific cognitive ability that shapes credibility (Rosu et al, 2021).…”