Factors Predicting Willingness to Share COVID-19 Misinformation

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Emilio J. C. Lobato¹  Maia Powell²  Lace M. K. Padilla¹  Colin Holbrook¹ 

[1] Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California – Merced, United States;Applied Mathematics Department, University of California – Merced, United States

关键词: conspiracy theories;    COVID-19;    misinformation;    social media;    political orientation;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566108

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

We conducted a preregistered exploratory survey to assess whether patterns of individual differences in political orientation, social dominance orientation (SDO), traditionalism, conspiracy ideation, or attitudes about science predict willingness to share different kinds of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic online. Analyses revealed two orthogonal models of individual differences predicting the willingness to share misinformation over social media platforms. Both models suggest a sizable role of different aspects of political belief, particularly SDO, in predicting tendencies to share different kinds of misinformation, predominantly conspiracy theories. Although exploratory, results from this study can contribute to the formulation of a socio-cognitive profile of individuals who act as vectors for the spread of scientific misinformation online, and can be useful for computationally modeling misinformation diffusion.

【 授权许可】

CC BY