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. 

Need for structure and perception of deceit in media in cases of ideological inconsistency

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.


Need for structure and perception of deceit in media in cases of manipulated feelings of lack of control

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. 

University of Delaware

Although humans ordinarily prioritize self-enhancing information, individuals also often perceive news media as largely opposing their personal beliefs.

Biases in media perception

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

A phenomenon in which individuals with opposing viewpoints both perceive the same news media as being biased against their position.

The hostile media phenomenon

Conservatives have been found to indicate more distrust of the media than liberals.

Asymmetries in perception of media bias

While there is an association between need for structure and belief that media was intentionally deceitful among both republican and democratic participants, this link was reliably stronger in the case of Republican participants.

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