Authors
Zea Szebeni, Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti, Jan-Erik Lönnqvist, Zsolt Péter Szabó
Publication date
2023/12/31
Journal
Social Influence
Volume
18
Issue
1
Pages
2279662
Publisher
Routledge
Description
Taking a person-centered approach – we explored different constellations of social-psychological characteristics associated with (dis)information belief in order to identify distinct subgroups whose (dis)information belief stems from different social or political motives. Hungarian participants (N = 296) judged the accuracy of fake and real news items with a political (pro/anti-government) and nonpolitical narrative. Two profiles of ‘fake news believers’ and two of ‘fake news non-believers’ emerged, with a high conspiracy mentality being the main marker of the former two. These two ‘fake news believers’ profiles were distinguishable: one exhibited extreme trust in the media and in politicians, and the other deep distrust. Our results suggest that not only political distrust, but also excessive trust can be associated with disinformation belief in less democratic social contexts.
Scholar articles
Z Szebeni, I Jasinskaja-Lahti, JE Lönnqvist, ZP Szabó - Social Influence, 2023