Research Pinpoints the Role of Personality in Sharing of ‘Fake News’ – Duke Today

To the researchers surprise, the data showed those conservatives who shared misinformation did so regardless of how much time they spent on social media, whether they supported the ideas in the falsified story, or even because they were trying to align their support with a particular political figure, Kakkar said. The analysis found participants who shared erroneous reports were driven by a desire to create chaos, he said.

We were shocked to see this had nothing to do even with a distrust for mainstream media, Kakkar said. It had more to do with their dissatisfaction with current political and social institutions, and a desire to break those down in favor of anarchy."

"Unfortunately, this desire is not assuaged even when the participant saw a warning that the story they were sharing may be false. So one critical question for the future is if theres anything that can help reduce this behavior, maybe by addressing these individuals desire for chaos.

The researchers hope the public will take away a specific message from the findings that a combination of personality and political beliefs not just political beliefs influences whether people perpetuate false information.

Conscientiousness appears to be a truly important factor determining the relationship between a persons political ideology and whether they share disinformation, Lawson said. That behavior almost completely disappeared in people with higher levels of conscientiousness.

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Research Pinpoints the Role of Personality in Sharing of 'Fake News' - Duke Today