Name: New study suggests that people share fake news on Twitter to hurt their political enemies
Brand: psypost.org
SKU: psypost-org-274
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

New study suggests that people share fake news on Twitter to hurt their political enemies

preview

No Result View All Result No Result View All Result [] New research accepted for publication in the sheds light on the psychological factors related to sharing fake news on Twitter.The findings indicate that people who share fake news don’t suffer from a lack of political knowledge or media literacy. Instead, the new study suggests that partisan animosity plays a key role.“The spread of fabricated political news on social media has emerged as a major concern. We wanted to understand how big the problem is and to test competing theories of why some people fall for political fake news while others do not,” said study author Mathias Osmundsen, an assistant professor at Aarhus University.The researchers analyzed data provided by 2,337 Twitter users, who completed an online survey between December 2018 to January 2019. The survey included assessments of a number of factors, including political knowledge, digital media literacy, cognitive reflection, and “trolling” behavior. The participants also indicated their own political leanings and how they felt about Republicans and Democrats in general.Osmundsen and his colleagues then cross-referenced 2,709,052 tweets collected from the participants to a list of fake news and real news sources. They found that about 3% of the tweets contained links to either fake news or real news sources. But the vast majority of news linked pointed to legitimate news websites. Only about 4% of the news links — 3,269 tweets in total — pointed to fake news sources.The researchers also examined the partisan slant of the news sources. Pro-Republican fake news was shared more often than pro-Democrat fake news. In contrast, pro-Democrat real news was shared more often than pro-Republican real news.When it came to predictors of sharing fake news, the researchers found no significant link to cognitive reflection, political knowledge, or digital media literacy. Instead, negative feelings towards one’s political opponents was the strongest predictor of sharing fake news on Twitter. Partisan animosity was also associated with sharing real news. “Our results suggest that while the sharing of fake news on social media is relatively rare, it is dictated by the same political motivations that drive the sharing of true news: Partisans, both Democrats and Republicans, are highly motivated to share news articles that put their political opponents in an unflattering light,” Osmundsen explained to PsyPost.“Still, we find that Republicans end up sharing more fake news than Democrats do. Why? We propose this ‘partisan asymmetry’ arises because most mainstream media outlets publish negative news articles about the Republican Party that Democrats will find politically useful. Republicans, however, must turn to fake news publishers to find articles that satisfy their political tastes.”“Importantly, this does not necessarily imply that mainstream media outlets suffer from a liberal bias,” Osmundsen noted. “It may also reflect a ‘reality bias’ during an unusual time in American politics (e.g., a polarizing Trump presidency).”But the study — like all research — includes some limitations.“Our study was conducted in America among a sample of Twitter users. Future work should explore if our results generalize to other social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, YouTube) and other countries characterized by less intense political polarization and different media systems. We also only examine correlational data, meaning that we are reluctant to make strong causal claims about the effect of political motivations on fake news sharing.”The study, ““, was authored by Mathias Osmundsen, Alexander Bor, Peter Bjerregaard Vahlstrup, Anja Bechmann, and Michael Bang Petersen. Get all the latest updates on new psychology research with the free PsyPost app. &nbsp; Powered by PsyPost is a psychology and neuroscience news website dedicated to reporting the latest research on human behavior, cognition, and society. () No Result View All Result This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. I Agree

No Result View All Result No Result View All Result [] New research accepted for publication in the sheds light on the psychological factors related to sharing fake news on Twitter.The findings indicate that people who share fake news don’t suffer from a lack of political knowledge or media literacy. Instead, the new study suggests that partisan animosity plays a key role.“The spread of fabricated political news on social media has emerged as a major concern. We wanted to understand how big the problem is and to test competing theories of why some people fall for political fake news while...

public

Managing editor at RawStory  and founder of PsyPost. Send tips to eric@rawstory.com

Eric W. Dolan

PsyPost is a psychology and neuroscience news website dedicated to reporting the latest research on human behavior, cognition, and society.  We are not interested in re-writing press releases from universities. We are not interested in over-generalizing or mischaracterizing research to get more clicks. We are not interested in confirming or disproving ideological beliefs. We are only interested in accurately reporting research about how humans think and behave. And we only report on research that has been published in legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific journals.

New study suggests that people share fake news on Twitter to hurt their political enemies

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS