Psychological, Communicative, and Relationship Characteristics That Relate to Social Media Users' Willingness to Denounce Fake News.

Abstract

Fake news is on the rise on many social media platforms. The proliferation of fake news is concerning, yet little is known about the characteristics that may motivate social media users to denounce (or ignore) fake news when they see it posted by strangers, close friends, and family members. Active social media users (N = 218) completed an online survey examining psychological characteristics (i.e., misinformation correction importance, self-esteem) and communicative characteristics (i.e., argumentativeness, conflict style) that may relate to an individual's willingness to denounce fake news posted by either strangers or close friends/family members. Participants examined several manipulated fake news scenarios differing in political alignment and relevant topic content within a Facebook news article format. Results indicated that misinformation correction importance was positively related to willingness to denounce in the context of close friends and family, but not with strangers. Moreover, participants with higher self-esteem were less likely to denounce fake news posted by strangers (but not posted by close friends and family), which suggests that confident individuals prefer to avoid challenging people outside of their close ties. Argumentativeness was positively related to willingness to denounce fake news in all scenarios no matter the user's relationship to the fake news poster. Results for conflict styles were mixed. These findings provide preliminary evidence for how psychological, communicative, and relationship characteristics relate to social media users' decision to denounce (or ignore) fake news posted on a social media platform.