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Fake News Susceptibility, an investigative study into potential factors that reduce the effect of analytical thinking.

Stegehuis, F.J. (2023) Fake News Susceptibility, an investigative study into potential factors that reduce the effect of analytical thinking.

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Abstract:The increasing spread of fake news and its societal impact has generated the needed scholarly interest from the particular field of social- and behavioral science. Throughout this research, the majority of studies indicate that engagement in analytical thinking causes individuals to correctly identify fake news. However, there are also indications that the protective effect of analytical thinking is not always apparent, and that there are factors that can weaken (or strengthen) this effect. Two of such factors appear to be the complexity of a (fake) news article and one’s level of involvement with a (fake) news article. This study aims to (1) retest the proposed negative relationship between analytical thinking and fake news susceptibility and to investigate the effect of both (2) complexity and (3) Involvement on this relationship. An online experiment was conducted, wherein participants were asked to rate two news articles, one of which fake while the other was factually accurate. Statistical analyses revealed that analytical thinking had no effect on accuracy ratings, and that both complexity and involvement did not affect this relationship either. It did appear that involvement caused individuals to rate both articles as more credible, making it a factor that should be studied further.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:70 social sciences in general, 77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/97391
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