Abstract
Accessing information online is now easier than ever. However, also false information is circulated in increasing quantities. We sought to identify social psychological factors that could explain why some people are more susceptible to false information. Specifically, we investigated whether psychological predispositions (social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, system justification beliefs (SJB), openness, need for closure, conspiracy mentality), competencies (scientific and political knowledge, interest in politics) or motivated reasoning based on social identity (political orientation) could help explain who believes fake news. Hungarian participants (N = 295) judged political (anti- and pro-government) and non-political news. The Hungarian context—characterized by low trust in media, populist communication by the government and increasing polarization—should be fertile ground for the proliferation of fake news. The context in making this case particularly interesting is that the major political fault line in Hungary runs between pro- and anti-government supporter groups and not, for instance, between conservative and liberal ideology or partisanship. We found clear support for the motivational reasoning explanation as political orientation consistently predicted belief in both fake and real political news when their contents aligned with one’s political identity. The belief in pro-government news was also associated with higher SJB among pro-government supporters. Those interested in politics showed better capacity to distinguish real political news from the fake ones. Most importantly, the only psychological predisposition that consistently explained belief in all types of fake news was a conspiracy mentality. This supports the notion of ideological symmetry in fake news belief—where a conspiracy mentality can be found across the political spectrum, and it can make people susceptible to disinformation regardless of group-memberships and other individual differences.
Highlights
According to a 2018 Eurobarometer, 83% of EU citizens feel that fake news represents a danger to democracy (European Commission, 2018)
One participant, who could not respond to any items on the scientific literacy scale, was removed as an outlier
We found that the only psychological predisposition that was consistently associated with belief in any type of fake news was conspiracy mentality
Summary
According to a 2018 Eurobarometer, 83% of EU citizens feel that fake news represents a danger to democracy (European Commission, 2018). The spread of disinformation has been argued by researchers to have the potential to undermine science and society, and cause further political polarization (e.g., Tucker et al, 2018). Recent comparative research has identified the following macro-level conditions as increasing the overall vulnerability to disinformation: polarization, populist communication, low trust in the news, weak public service media and media regulation, fragmented audiences, a large advertisement market and high social media use (Humprecht et al, 2020). In addition to macro-level societal factors, researchers have investigated the fabric of the fake news and its production by focusing for example on whether some features of fake news (e.g., source, internal consistency) make disinformation more compelling (e.g., Schaewitz et al, 2020). We still know little about the possible social psychological factors associated with susceptibility to disinformation
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