To investigate how one can deduce the truthfulness of information, detect whether or not it is fake news, and how exactly the spread of this information is affected by its truthfulness.

Main Idea of "Truth and the dynamics of news diffusion on twitter"

Non-probative photos are photos related to some information without any characteristic of proof functioning as decoration.

non-probative photos

Doctored videos that serve as evidence for events that never actually occurred; created using machine learning techniques or artificial intelligence.

Deepfake Videos

While it remains certain that consequences can arise from believing fake news, the extent to this remains unclear. Specifically, there is limited research on whether believing fake news can influence an individual's intentions to change their personal behavior. Researchers such as Greene & Murphy (2021) aim to breach this gap in scientific literature to determine if exposure to fake news related to the COVID-19 pandemic will impact participants' intentions to alter their behavior in light of the recent coronavirus outbreak. 

Effects of COVID-19 Related Fake News on Behavioral Intentions

Which factors influence an individual’s likelihood to believe in FN? Do the factors contributing to someone believing in conspiracy theories also affect one’s likelihood to believe in FN?

Research question of Anthony & Moulding's (2019) study "Breaking the news: Belief in fake news and conspiracist beliefs." 

Exposure to fake news has been linked to changes in the amount of trust and individual has in the mainstream media and in the government. Consuming misinformation around the 2018 midterm elections was linked to a decline in media trust, but a general increase in political trust. 

Fake News and Trust in Media/Government

What characteristics are associated with sharing fake news articles during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign?

Research question of "prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on fb" (Guess et al., 2019)

When someone quotes what has claimed to have been said by another individual, but this "fake quoter" has actually fabricated the words themselves. This is usually done with the intent to deceive. 

Fake-Quoting

A 2019 study found that Americans rated "made-up news" as a more serious problem than climate change, racism, or terrorism.

Public concern about fake news

Evidence suggests that emotional content may hinder one's ability to critically think about the accuracy of information because emotional information is processed more rapidly.

Emotion and Ability to Gauge Accuracy

Researchers have been creating electronic simulations as means to train people to identify fake news. These are often presented in the form of games, and they simulate online platforms where misinformation and fake news are spread.

Electronic Simulation Interventions for Fake News

• Main objective of the study is to investigate if there are gender differences in how users’ perceive fake news.

• The researchers look at how gender affects the degree of concern about the effects of fake news.

• They investigate if there are gender differences when it comes to the ability to detect fake news. 

• Lastly, they look at if there are differences with regards to the topics of misinformation different genders are exposed to. 




Gender Differences in the Perception of Fake News

- Political Ideology 
- Age 
- Conscientiousness

Factors Related to the Sharing of Fake News

The goal of the study was to study/determine the factors that lead to the sharing of misinformation. Apuke & Omar analyzed data to determine the effects of six variables on the outcome of COVID-19 fake news sharing. The six variables are:
- altruism
- information sharing 
- entertainment
- socialisation
- information seeking
- pass time

Fake news and COVID-19: modelling the predictors of fake news sharing among social media users

- Education Level
- Emotional Intelligence
- Age
- Deliberation

Factors that Impact Fake News Detection

Satire uses fiction/humor. to point out a larger social/political truth. It's intention, unlike fake news, is not to deceive.

Satire

Individuals will often attribute inaccurate news reports to either an unintentional error or an intentional attempt to spread misinformation.

Attributions for fake news

Due to the growing usage of social media in recent years, the prevalence of fake news has become more worrisome due to a wide variety of factors, such as the wide accessibility of social media platforms to spread fake news, a lower reliance on mainstream media, and higher hostility between political groups in western nations.

Fake News in the Digital Age

• Misinformation is abundant

• Believing and acting upon fake news may have consequences

• Strong societies require interpersonal trust

Importance of Studying Fake News

This type of reasoning is motivated by political identity. This theory predicts that  engaging in more deliberation when reading news posts should cause a person to hold more politically polarized beliefs and lead to greater belief in politically concordant but false claims. More deliberation is associated with worse truth discernment.

Deliberative reasoning and fake news

- Delusionality 
- Dogmatism 
- Religious Fundamentalism
- Overclaiming

All of these factors are also associated with analytic thinking.

Factors that impact belief in fake news

Overconfidence contributes to susceptibility to fake news because it stops people from pausing and engaging in reflective reasoning about the content. 

Overconfidence and Fake News

- Familiarity with the content
- The news source
- How emotionally evocative the content is

Factors that cause people to error when discerning between real and fake news

Classical reasoning theories portray deliberative reasoning as being responsible for correcting faulty intuitions and predict that people who deliberate more are less likely to believe false content and have better ability to discern between true and false information, regardless of political concordance. More evidence supports classical reasoning (compared to deliverative reasoning)

Classical reasoning and fake news

Analytic thinking helps to accurately discern the truth in the context of news headlines . 

Analytic Thinking and Fake News

A writer for a satirical website publishes a humorous and clearly fabricated article claiming that a local mayor has replaced the city council with a team of trained squirrels to improve efficiency. The article's purpose is to poke fun at recent bureaucratic delays. A social media user, missing the satirical context, shares a screenshot of the headline, and it spreads rapidly, with many people believing it to be a genuine news report. Based on the definition of information created with the specific intent to mislead the public, which of the following best analyzes this situation?

Analyze the two scenarios provided. Which scenario describes the creation of 'fake news'? Justify your answer by explaining the critical difference between the two situations, focusing on the element that defines information as fake news.

Distinguishing Intent in False Information

A news report that contains several factual inaccuracies due to a journalist's rushed and sloppy fact-checking process is, by definition, an example of fake news.

False information spread through news reporting to intentionally mislead and deceive the public. Malintent is present on behalf of the person(s) creating the news, but not necessarily on behalf of the person(s) spreading the news.

Michigan State University

University of Delaware

Arizona State University

New York University

Google

- Health Misinformation
- Political Misinformation
- Fake News
- Disinformation
- Misinformation in Online Communities

Types of Misinformation

Greifeneder, R., Jaffe, M., Newman, E., & Schwarz, N. (Eds.). (2021). The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429295379

The Psychology of Fake News

Ackland, R., & Gwynn, K. (2020). Truth and the dynamics of news diffusion on twitter. In R. Greifeneder, M. Jaffé, E. J. Newman, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), The psychology of fake news: Accepting, sharing, and correcting misinformation (pp. 27–46). London: Routledge. 

Truth and the dynamics of news diffusion on twitter

Reference of Foundations of Large Language Models Course

Fake News

As the term indicates, health misinformation is misinformation related to health. Themes might be viruses, food safety, nutrition and vaccinations (Bode & Vraga, 2018; Chen et al., 2018; Lazer et al., 2018; Lewandowsky et al., 2012; Oh & Lee, 2019). These  misinformation can negatively affect people’s health behaviors (Chou et al., 2018; Oh & Lee, 2019). 

Health misinformation

Misleading, false, or incomplete information concerning or perpetuated by political entities.

Political Misinformation

Disinformation is information that is (verifiably) false or misleading that is purposefully spread to misinform the public. 

Disinformation 

Synthetic media is media generated by technology such as AI algorithms. There are fears that it could be used to supercharge fake news, spread misinformation and automate creative jobs

Synthetic Media

Duplicate entries in online communities can amplify misinformation by creating the impression that inaccurate information is more widely accepted or verified than it actually is. When multiple copies of inaccurate information are posted, it can give the false impression that the information is reliable or trustworthy, potentially leading to its rapid spread throughout the community.

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