Fake news refers to informations that are not true. They are generally disseminated in the media and on social networks. Sometimes fake news are attempts to misinform. Fakes news can take the form of deliberate or accidental misinformation. Today there is an abundance of fake news and many people are falling into the trap.
Christopher Dwyer researcher in psychology at the National University of Ireland in Galway has identified seven psychological functions that make people vulnerable to fake news :
1. Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias means that individuals favour information that confirms their existing beliefs. People are more likely to fall into the trap of fake news if they agree with what is said. Conversely, people are more sensitive to false news when they disagree with it.
It is therefore important to take this bias into account in our thinking.
2. Limits of attention
Lack of time and abundance of information can make people vulnerable to misinformation. There is an abundance of information broadcast daily on radio, television and social networks. Sometimes the reader only reads the headlines and is misled by fake news.
3. Lack of credibility evaluation
The third bias refers to lack of credibility evaluation. Assessing the credibility of information involves evaluating its sources, to check whether the information has been given by other media and whether the author, the website and the media that distributes the information is reliable. The more important a topic is to a person, the more time they will take to evaluate the sources of information. On the contrary, if a piece of information concerns a subject that is not important to the person, then he or she will tend not to evaluate the source and will more easily believe in false information.
4. Cognitive limits
The third psychological functioning that promotes belief in false information refers to cognitive limitations. Indeed, humans tend to use a fast and automatic intuitive way of thinking and use the analytical way of thinking only when intuitive thinking is insufficient. This way of thinking saves energy and time but makes people more vulnerable to fake news.
5. Emotion are targeted
One of the main characteristics of misinformation is to appeal to emotions such as fear or anger. This leads to intuitive information processing and prevents logical and reflective reasoning.
6. Reiteration: the illusory truth effect
The more people are exposed to false information, the more likely they are to believe it. Sometimes false information is relayed on social networks, on TV and also on the radio. People are sometimes “naive”. They tell themselves that since the information is given by many media then it is true.
7. Social pressure
When many people, our friends and family believe in false information. We can be influenced and believe it too. People will follow the advice of their friends and family without wondering if the information is true.
We can therefore see that the belief in fakes news is not due to chance. It is important to understand the different mechanisms that promote belief in this fake news. To eradicate fake news it is essential to understand how it is constructed and to inform people about the different biases.
Bibiography :
Baumeister, R. (2003). The psychology of irrationality: Why people make foolish, self-defeating choices. The Psychology of Economic Decisions, 1, 3-16.
C.D. (2019, 15 novembre). 7 raisons wy we fall for fake news. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/thoughts-thinking/201911/7-reasons-why-we-fall-fake-news.