What are the psychological characteristics of people who tend to believe fake news?

Fake news is often spread online for the purpose of increasing advertising revenue or destroying trust in politics, companies, etc., and in some cases, it can cause great psychological or practical damage. In order to think about the effects of fake news and possible prevention methods, researchers at Ramon Lluy University in Spain have conducted a ``psychological and psychological analysis of fake news consumption.''

Who falls for fake news? Psychological and clinical profiling evidence of fake news consumers - ScienceDirect
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886922003981

The tendency to believe in things that have no scientific or logical basis is called 'pseudoscientific beliefs.' A 2020 study defines pseudoscientific beliefs as 'a cognitive bias that occurs when certain content or information is accepted as scientific when in fact there is insufficient objective evidence.' That's what I mean. Some studies have pointed out that pseudoscientific beliefs that make it easier to trust fake news have increased significantly during the coronavirus outbreak, and it is thought to be influenced by certain social situations and psychological states.

A study published by psychologists at the University of Illinois in November 2021 on the tendency to believe in fake news found that clever fake news uses paper citations and technical terminology to disguise itself as scientific. It has been pointed out that ``people who trust science are at greater risk of being deceived.'' On the other hand, in order to spot fake news, it is important to be able to think analytically. Some studies have shown that the more people are able to distinguish between emotional and factual content, the better they are at spotting fake news.

It turns out that people with high ``emotional intelligence'' are good at spotting fake news - GIGAZINE

In a paper published in ScienceDirect in September 2022, a joint study by Alex Escola-Gascon, a specialist in international communication at Spain's Ramon Lluy University, and Neil Dagnall, a psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University, revealed that , investigated the psychopathological analysis of “fake news consumers.” According to the paper, there are many studies investigating how fake news affects people and the tendency to believe fake news, but there are very few papers that show it in relation to psychiatric effects or mental illness.

The study recruited 1,452 volunteers who had never been to a psychiatric hospital and administered a fake news screening test. Participants first answered how many hours a day they use computers, smartphones, and televisions. After that, they looked at 6 pieces of true news about the new coronavirus and 6 pieces of news whose veracity was uncertain, and then answered based on whether the content was true or not.

Depending on the test results, the volunteers were divided into Group 1, who are not fake news consumers (can see through fake news), and Group 2, who are fake news consumers (cannot see through fake news). The analysis was carried out in conjunction with the above. As a result of the analysis, people with schizophrenia, paranoia with strong persecutory delusions due to the influence of anxiety and fear, and histrionic personality disorder with a tendency to act in a conspicuous manner to attract the attention of others, are more likely to believe in fake news. It was concluded that it is difficult for people to realize that something is not true, making them susceptible to fake news. The image below is a graph of the analysis results for 10 items such as mental anxiety, and in many items the red line group that was unable to effectively see through fake news has high numbers.

On the contrary, the paper argues that failure to correctly identify fake news may increase the risk of psychopathology, including traits anxiety, historicist tendencies, symptoms such as schizophrenia and paranoia, and biases such as the Barnum effect. is showing.

However, it is also believed that tendencies such as anxiety disorders arise from the pressure of being told to ``detect fake news.'' In addition, past research has shown that screening tests for fake news related to the new coronavirus have been found to be significant, but there are differences in prerequisite knowledge and concerns regarding the new coronavirus. It is important to note that there are some aspects that could not be verified experimentally, as they may affect the analysis results.

Based on the research results, the paper concludes that the spread of fake news is not only affected by the state of SNS and media, but also the mental state of the reader, and that an individual and internal approach is necessary. The negative effects of fake news can be avoided by combining an external approach that detects and eliminates fake news using algorithms, etc., and a method of spreading a mindset that does not arouse feelings of anxiety or discomfort due to fake news. .

A forum related to this article has been set up on the GIGAZINE official Discord server. Anyone can write freely, so please feel free to comment!

• Discord | 'Have you ever believed something but later found out it was fake news?' | GIGAZINE
https://discord.com/channels/1037961069903216680/1173550565964394556