A first-of-its-kind study from researchers at Michigan State University reveals that individuals who experience the most distress and impairment in daily functioning from social media use are more likely to believe fake news.
“Social media are everywhere in our daily lives, and some people display problematic, excessive use of these platforms. We found that this overuse is associated with a greater tendency to believe in and engage with misinformation,” said Dar Meshi, an associate professor and co-author of the study, which published today in the journal PLOS One and was funded by MSU’s Trifecta Initiative.
Meshi and his co-author, Maria D. Molina, both faculty members in the MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences, conducted an online experiment in which 189 participants, age 18 to 26, were presented with 20 news stories formatted as social media posts. Ten of the stories were real and ten were false, and the order of delivery was randomized. By assessing participants’ credibility judgment of these news posts; participants intentions to click, comment, like and share posts; and their degree of problematic social media use, Meshi and Molina found that the greater people’s symptoms of problematic social media use, the more likely they were to:
- believe fake news is true;
- interact with news posts regardless if they were real or fake; and
- want to click on fake news posts.
Fake or false news falls under two categories: misinformation if it is unintentionally distributed and disinformation if it is intentionally distributed to deceive people.
“False news has become a hotly debated and researched topic because of its availability to be shared and spread over social media. Over 60% of people in the U.S. read content on social media, and research has demonstrated that false news disseminates over social media at a greater rate than real news,” said Molina.
The researchers believe their study is the first to look at how problematic social media use is involved with people’s trust in fake news by measuring their intended actions, like clicking, liking and sharing posts. Although the American Psychiatric Association doesn’t recognize problematic social media use as a clinical disorder, Meshi points out that it shares similarities with substance use and other behavioral addictive disorders.
“People who display problematic social media use may feel bad if they can’t access it, and they might even return to it after trying to quit. This kind of behavior has been linked to job loss, poor grades and mental health issues,” Meshi said.
Meshi and Molina hope their findings will help mental health professionals working with people who struggle with social media use, as well as others in the health care field.
“Individuals with signs of problematic social media use may also be more susceptible to health-related misinformation, so clinicians specializing in different fields may benefit from awareness of their patients’ degree of social media use,” said Molina.
The study’s findings could also help inform efforts from governmental agencies, organizations and social media companies to combat misinformation and disinformation.
By identifying people who are more likely to believe fake news, we can help reduce its spread,” Meshi said. “Researchers could work with social media companies to find ways to help these users and limit their exposure to fake news.”
