Why Do People Share Ideologically Extreme, False, and Misleading Content on Social Media? A Self-Report and Trace Data–Based Analysis of Countermedia Content Dissemination on Facebook and Twitter

Abstract

Abstract Recently, substantial attention has been paid to the spread of highly partisan and often factually incorrect information (i.e., so-called “fake news”) on social media. In this study, we attempt to extend current knowledge on this topic by exploring the degree to which individual levels of ideological extremity, social trust, and trust in the news media are associated with the dissemination of countermedia content, or web-based, ideologically extreme information that uses false, biased, misleading, and hyper-partisan claims to counter the knowledge produced by the mainstream news media. To investigate these possible associations, we used a combination of self-report survey data and trace data collected from Facebook and Twitter. The results suggested that sharing countermedia content on Facebook is positively associated with ideological extremity and negatively associated with trust in the mainstream news media. On Twitter, we found evidence that countermedia content sharing is negatively associated with social trust.