Political psychology in the digital (mis)information age: A model of news belief and sharing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris ◽  
Philip Pärnamets ◽  
Steve Rathje ◽  
Kimberly Doell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Social

The spread of misinformation, including “fake news,” propaganda, and conspiracy theories, represents a serious threat to society, as it has the potential to alter beliefs, behavior, and policy. Research is beginning to disentangle how and why misinformation is spread and identify processes that contribute to this social problem. We propose an integrative model to understand the social, political, and cognitive psychology risk factors that underlie the spread of misinformation and highlight strategies that might be effective in mitigating this problem. However, the spread of misinformation is a rapidly growing and evolving problem; thus scholars need to identify and test novel solutions, and work with policy makers to evaluate and deploy these solutions. Hence, we provide a roadmap for future research to identify where scholars should invest their energy in order to have the greatest overall impact.

scholarly journals Linguistic drivers of misinformation diffusion on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giandomenico Di Domenico ◽  
Annamaria Tuan ◽  
Marco Visentin
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Textual Cues ◽  
Twitter Users

AbstractIn the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedent amounts of fake news and hoax spread on social media. In particular, conspiracy theories argued on the effect of specific new technologies like 5G and misinformation tarnished the reputation of brands like Huawei. Language plays a crucial role in understanding the motivational determinants of social media users in sharing misinformation, as people extract meaning from information based on their discursive resources and their skillset. In this paper, we analyze textual and non-textual cues from a panel of 4923 tweets containing the hashtags #5G and #Huawei during the first week of May 2020, when several countries were still adopting lockdown measures, to determine whether or not a tweet is retweeted and, if so, how much it is retweeted. Overall, through traditional logistic regression and machine learning, we found different effects of the textual and non-textual cues on the retweeting of a tweet and on its ability to accumulate retweets. In particular, the presence of misinformation plays an interesting role in spreading the tweet on the network. More importantly, the relative influence of the cues suggests that Twitter users actually read a tweet but not necessarily they understand or critically evaluate it before deciding to share it on the social media platform.

Clarifying the Relations between Intellectual Humility and Misinformation Susceptibility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shauna Marie Bowes ◽  
Arber Tasimi
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Cognitive Reflection ◽  
Three Samples

Misinformation is widespread and consequential. Thus, identifying psychological characteristics that might mitigate misinformation susceptibility represents a timely and pragmatically important issue. One construct that may be particularly relevant to misinformation susceptibility is intellectual humility (IH). As such, we examined whether IH is related to less misinformation susceptibility, what aspects of IH best predict misinformation susceptibility, and whether these relations are unique to IH. Across three samples, IH tended to manifest small-to-medium negative relations with misinformation susceptibility (pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and fake news). IH measures assessing both intrapersonal and interpersonal features tended to be stronger correlates of misinformation susceptibility than measures assessing either intrapersonal or interpersonal features in isolation. These relations tended to remain robust after controlling for covariates (honesty-humility, cognitive reflection, political ideology). Future research should leverage our results to examine whether IH interventions not only reduce misinformation susceptibility but also lessen its appeal for those already committed to misinformation.

Drinking Behavior and Risk Factors Related to the Work Place: Implications for Research and Prevention

1988 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison M. Trice ◽  
William J. Sonnenstuhl
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Drinking Behavior ◽  
Work Place ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Work Culture ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Drinking Problems ◽  
The Social ◽  
Reduce Risk ◽  
Alcohol Abuse And Dependence

This article presents a review of the literature addressing employees' alcohol abuse and dependence. Based on this review, the authors identify four perspectives adopted by social scientists studying drinking behavior and the work place. The work culture perspective postulates that administrative and occupational subcultures establish norms for alcohol use. The social control perspective postulates that an organization's disciplinary structure may either inhibit or create opportunities for the development of drinking problems. The alienation perspective and the work stress perspective postulate that various work place conditions (e.g., boring tasks, work overload) cause distress, which employees may seek to relieve with alcohol. The authors recommend that these four perspectives guide future research and current efforts to reduce risk factors in the work place that are associated with drinking behavior.

A Literature Review of NLP Approaches to Fake News Detection and Their Applicability to Romanian-Language News Analysis

Transilvania ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 65-71
Author(s):  
Costin Busioc ◽  
Stefan Ruseti ◽  
Mihai Dascalu
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Research Interest ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Research Groups ◽  
Low Resource ◽  
News Analysis ◽  
The Social

Fighting fake news is a difficult and challenging task. With an increasing impact on the social and political environment, fake news exert an unprecedently dramatic influence on people’s lives. In response to this phenomenon, initiatives addressing automated fake news detection have gained popularity, generating widespread research interest. However, most approaches targeting English and low-resource languages experience problems when devising such solutions. This study focuses on the progress of such investigations, while highlighting existing solutions, challenges, and observations shared by various research groups. In addition, given the limited amount of automated analyses performed on Romanian fake news, we inspect the applicability of the available approaches in the Romanian context, while identifying future research paths.

scholarly journals Countering the New Media Podia: Youth and ‘Fake News’ in Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 8-12
Author(s):  
Oloo Ong’ong’a
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Fake News ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Legal Structures ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
The Media

The rise of fake news into the new media platform has raised significant concern in Africa and Kenya in recent years. The new media has embedded itself with fake news, which sometimes has led to the misunderstanding and misinformation of particular events that might be of the public interest. The general public, policymakers, and scholars, as well as the media, have found this as a very challenging issue. The upsurge of the new technologies, mainly social media, has posed challenges as youth immerse themselves in utilizing these social media for their own benefits. This is coupled with the creation and spreading of fake news, which sometimes when it goes viral; they lead to stress, panic and uncertainty to the individuals that come across them. The ability of users’ exceptional capacity to produce, reproduce, and distribute their information to a broad audience makes social media, an essential tool in the information age. The article critically reviews the literature on fake news and recommends for media literacy, strengthening the legal structures and use of sophisticated technologies as a strategy to fight fake news in the social media in Kenya.

scholarly journals MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION DURING COVID-19: THE EFFECTS AND THE RELEVANT LAWS IN MALAYSIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (21) ◽  
pp. 202-209
Author(s):  
Hanis Wahed
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Fake News ◽  
False Information ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Misinformation and disinformation are increasing as fast as the spreading of Coronavirus disease 2019 or Covid-19. Both happen as a result of the use of social media and technologies. The act of spreading fake news, rumors, and conspiracy theories or giving false information is considered an offence under the laws of Malaysia. However, the number of cases that relate to this offence has been increasing especially during the current pandemic. Thus, this article discusses the effects of the offence and the efforts taken in preventing it from happening. The focus is on the laws that are applicable in the situation. The methodology used is socio-legal research that involves analysing the laws that are applicable in the social situation. The article suggests that further research should be carried out on the applicable laws and amendments should be made to the relevant laws in order to combat the commission of the offence in the future. It is hoped that the suggestion will assist the authority to add more measures in combatting the pandemic and for the public to be more cautious of committing misinformation and disinformation.

Disclosure Conflicts

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1011-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abby Kinchy ◽  
Guy Schaffer
Keyword(s):  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Extraction Process ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nature Of Information

Many governments and corporations have embraced information disclosure as an alternative to conventional environmental and public health regulation. Public policy research on transparency has examined the effects of particular disclosure policies, but there is limited research on how the construction of disclosure policies relates to social movements, or how transparency and ignorance are related. As a first step toward filling this theoretical gap, this study seeks to conceptualize disclosure conflicts, the social processes through which secrecy is challenged, defended, and mobilized in public technoscientific controversies. In the case of shale oil and gas development (“fracking”) in the United States, activists and policy makers have demanded information about the contents of fluids used in the extraction process and the routes of oil shipments by rail. Drilling and railroad companies have resisted both demands. Studies of such disputes reveal the dynamic and conflictual nature of information disclosure. In both cases, disclosure conflicts unfold dynamically over time, reflecting power disparities between industry groups and their challengers and requiring coalitions of activists to pursue multiple tactics. When a disclosure policy is established, it does not resolve social conflict but shifts the focus of struggle to the design of information systems, the quality of disclosed data, and the knowledge gaps that are now illuminated.

scholarly journals How Do Employees Respond to the CSR Initiatives of their Organizations: Empirical Evidence from Developing Countries

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariam Farooq ◽  
Omer Farooq ◽  
Walid Cheffi
Keyword(s):  
Social Exchange ◽  
Turnover Intention ◽  
Turnover Intentions ◽  
Organizational Trust ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Corporate Social

This research presents a new perspective of social exchange to explain the employee responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of their organizations. In particular, the current study aims to explore the social exchange based mediation mechanism between CSR actions and employee turnover intentions. Considering this theory, we propose that organizational trust is the primary outcome of CSR, which in turn influences the affective organizational commitment (AOC) and reduces the turnover intentions (TOI) of employees. Moreover, we posit that different types of CSR actions have different effects on employees due to their relative importance. To test the suggested research model, we analyzed the data collected on 304 employees working in the Star hotel in South Asia. Results of the study demonstrate the organizational trust to be a mediator between CSR and AOC and that CSR negatively impacts the turnover intentions of employees through the mediation of trust and AOC. Moreover, the results show the relevance of examining the disaggregated effects of different types of CSR actions on employees’ turnover intention. The study concludes with implications for future research and for policy-makers.

Interpersonal Gun Violence Research in the Social Work Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-231
Author(s):  
Roberto R Aspholm ◽  
Christopher St Vil ◽  
Kimberly A E Carter
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Social Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gun Violence ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Major Public Health Issue ◽  
Analytic Treatment ◽  
The Social

Abstract Interpersonal gun violence remains a major public health issue in the United States and beyond. This article explores the research on interpersonal gun violence published in peer-reviewed social work journals since the mid-1990s. Findings from this review indicate that the existing scholarship offers some important insights into this topic, particularly related to risk factors for and the effects of exposure to gun violence. These findings, however, also point to some shortcomings in the literature, including problems with the measurement and analytic treatment of exposure to gun violence and a lack of research with direct victims and perpetrators of gun violence. Implications for future research are discussed.

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