| Title |
Fake news discernment, overall belief in fake news, and socioeconomic status / |
| Authors |
Jurkuvėnas, Vytautas ; Mikuličiūtė, Vita ; Pakalniškienė, Vilmantė ; Ivleva, Viktorija |
| Full Text |
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| Is Part of |
Psihološka obzorja = Horizons of psychology: vol. 31: Psychology as the hub science: opportunities and responsibility: 17th European congress of psychology, 5-8 July 2022, Ljubljana, Slovenia : book of abstracts.. Slovenian Psychologists' Association. 2022, vol. 31, p. 210-211.. ISSN 1318-1874. eISSN 2350-5141 |
| Keywords [eng] |
fake news discernment ; overall belief in fake news ; socioeconomic status |
| Abstract [eng] |
Widely shared messages about COVID-19 raise significant concerns because they often contain incorrect information about the virus and its treatment. Latest studies have started to analyze factors that might make some individuals more likely to discern fake news. Among these variables, socioeconomic variables have been shown to play an important role. Also, it has been suggested that measuring belief in fake news in some cases might be substituted by measuring overall belief in news in general. This study aims to examine relationships between discernment of fake news, overall belief in news, and variables of socioeconomic status. In total 504 preretirees and retirees of Lithuania participated in the research (69.7% were females). Mean age was 64.3 (range from 50 to 90 years). Participants read true and false news headlines, taken from social media. Two measures were calculated: how much participant believed that the headline was true (overall belief) and how much he/she could distinguish true and fake headlines (discernment). Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were performed to analyze whether the educational level and household income for one person predicted both fake news discernment and overall belief in news. According to the results, as the educational level increased the possibility of believing in news in general also increased. However, nor educational level, nor household income did not predict fake news discernment. Therefore, the present study, which focuses on two different ways of measuring reactions to fake news on social media, is thought to suggest that in some cases overall belief in news might be a better alternative to measuring belief in fake news. Also, although further research is needed, preliminary results show that educational level is a more significant factor in increasing overall disbelief in news instead of fake news discernment. |
| Published |
Slovenian Psychologists' Association |
| Type |
Conference paper |
| Language |
English |
| Publication date |
2022 |
| CC license |
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