Participants who were manipulated to feel a lack of control (asked to write about a time in their life that was uncontrollable) exhibited a greater tendency to perceive media as deceitful when mistakes were made.


University of Delaware

When participants read an essay about the misinformation spread by the political party opposite their own affiliation, there was a positive association between need for structure and their attributions of media as intentionally deceitful. 

Need for structure and perception of intentional deceit in media in cases of ideological consistency

Axt, J., Landau, M., Kay, A. (2020). The Psychological Appeal of Fake News Attributions. Association for Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620922785 

The Psychological Appeal of Fake-News Attributions

Participants who were placed in a condition which threatened their sense of control (control-threat condition) were able to regain a sense of control by attributing media with intent to deceive. Specifically, those in the control-threat group who did not attribute media with intent to deceive felt a greater need for structure, as the threat had not been resolved.

Attributing misinformation with deceit can recover a sense of control

When participants were randomly assigned to an ideologically consistent (read article critiquing opposing party) and ideologically inconsistent (read article critiquing their own party) group, the positive association between need for structure and perception of deceit remained in both groups. 

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