The link between fake news susceptibility and political polarization of the youth in the Philippines

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores the relationship between political polarization, measured as pro-administration and opposition support, and vulnerability to online misinformation through a survey distributed through snowball sampling among students in colleges and universities across the Philippines. Using quasibinomial models, a two-model approach was conducted to disentangle the accuracy goals and partisan goals of the students. We find that polarized supporters of President Duterte are more likely to inaccurately identify fake and real news, compared to polarized supporters of the opposition. This is remarkably similar to trends in the United States where Republicans are more vulnerable to misinformation. Other results also highlight possible trends, such as the link between increased self-reported frequency of seeing fake news and decreased likelihood of correctly identifying fake news, and the link between increased trust in news in social media and decreased odds of correctly identifying both real and fake news.