scholarly journals Individual Differences in Belief in Fake News about Election Fraud after the 2020 U.S. Election

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Dustin P. Calvillo ◽  
Abraham M. Rutchick ◽  
Ryan J. B. Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Presidential Approval ◽  
Cognitive Reflection ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Election Fraud ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Election News ◽  
The U.S

Fake news is a serious problem because it misinforms people about important issues. The present study examined belief in false headlines about election fraud after the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Belief in election fraud had dangerous consequences, including the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. In the present study, participants rated the truthfulness of true and false headlines about the election, and then completed individual difference measures eight days after the election. Participants with more conservative ideology, greater presidential approval of the outgoing president, greater endorsement of general conspiracy narratives and poorer cognitive reflection demonstrated greater belief in false headlines about election fraud. Additionally, consuming more politically conservative election news was associated with greater belief in false headlines. Identifying the factors related to susceptibility to false claims of election fraud offers a path toward countering the influence of these claims by tailoring interventions aimed at decreasing belief in misinformation and decreasing conspiracy beliefs to those most susceptible.

Examining false beliefs about voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 Presidential Election

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Pennycook ◽  
David Gertler Rand
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
False Beliefs ◽  
Wide Spread ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Election Fraud ◽  
Voter Fraud ◽  
Election News

The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election saw an unprecedented number of false claims alleging election fraud and arguing that Donald Trump was the actual winner of the election. Here we report a survey exploring belief in these false claims that was conducted three days after Biden was declared the winner. We find that a majority of Trump voters in our sample – particularly those who were more politically knowl-edgeable and more closely following election news – falsely believed that election fraud was wide-spread and that Trump won the election. Thus, false beliefs about the election are not merely a fringe phenomenon. We also find that Trump conceding or losing his legal challenges would likely lead a ma-jority of Trump voters to accept Biden’s victory as legitimate, although 40% said they would continue to view Biden as illegitimate regardless. Finally, we found that levels of partisan spite and endorsement of violence were equivalent between Trump and Biden voters.

Fake It “Till You Make It”: Debunking Fake News in a Post-Truth America

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-133
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
American People ◽  
Fake News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
The Media ◽  
The U.S

Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, attacks on the media have been relentless. “Fake news” has become a household term, and repeated attempts to break the trust between reporters and the American people have threatened the validity of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this article, the authors trace the development of fake news and its impact on contemporary political discourse. They also outline cutting-edge pedagogies designed to assist students in critically evaluating the veracity of various news sources and social media sites.

Gubernatorial, Senatorial, and State-level Presidential Job Approval: The U.S. Officials Job Approval Ratings (JAR) Collection

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thad Beyle ◽  
Richard G. Niemi ◽  
Lee Sigelman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Presidential Approval ◽  
Approval Ratings ◽  
Job Approval ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time

Job approval ratings for state governors, unlike those for the United States president, have been relatively inaccessible to political scientists. We introduce the U.S. Officials Job Approval Ratings (JAR) dataset, a new compilation of gubernatorial job approval ratings—along with senatorial and state-level presidential ratings—that draws together many of these ratings, beginning with the first published rating in 1947 and extending through 2000. We describe some of the characteristics of these data, especially the kinds of rating scales used and their impact on overall approval assessment. We then show that 1993–2000 presidential approval levels varied widely from state to state and are correlated with state-level support for Clinton in the 1996 presidential election. Finally, we note that while gubernatorial approval often declines over time, many governors remain popular over the length of their term.

scholarly journals Research note: Examining false beliefs about voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 Presidential Election

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Pennycook ◽  
David G. Rand
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Research Note ◽  
False Beliefs ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Election Fraud ◽  
Voter Fraud ◽  
Election News

The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election saw an unprecedented number of false claims alleging election fraud and arguing that Donald Trump was the actual winner of the election. Here we report a sur-vey exploring belief in these false claims that was conducted three days after Biden was declared the winner. We find that a majority of Trump voters in our sample – particularly those who were more politically knowledgeable and more closely following election news – falsely believed that election fraud was widespread and that Trump won the election. Thus, false beliefs about the elec-tion are not merely a fringe phenomenon. We also find that Trump conceding or losing his legal challenges would likely lead a majority of Trump voters to accept Biden’s victory as legitimate, alt-hough 40% said they would continue to view Biden as illegitimate regardless. Finally, we found that levels of partisan spite and endorsement of violence were equivalent between Trump and Biden voters.

scholarly journals Psychological Correlates of COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs and Preventive Measures: Evidence from Turkey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinan Alper ◽  
Fatih Bayrak ◽  
Onurcan Yilmaz
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Uncertainty Avoidance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Cognitive Reflection ◽  
Psychological Correlates ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs

COVID-19 pandemic has led to popular conspiracy theories regarding its origins and widespread concern over the level of compliance with preventive measures. In the current preregistered research, we recruited 1088 Turkish participants and investigated (a) individual differences associated with COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs; (b) whether such conspiracy beliefs are related to the level of preventive measures; and (c) other individual differences that might be related to the preventive measures. Higher faith in intuition, uncertainty avoidance, impulsivity, generic conspiracy beliefs, religiosity, and right-wing ideology, and a lower level of cognitive reflection were associated with a higher level of belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. There was no association between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and preventive measures while perceived risk was positively and impulsivity negatively correlated with preventive measures. We discuss the implications and directions for future research.

scholarly journals Fejk – „fabuła z zamiarem oszukania”

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-312
Author(s):  
Łukasz Małecki
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
The U.S

While misinformation and propaganda have existed since ancient times, their importance and influence nowadays – in the age of social media – is still not clear. Recent social and political events, such as the controversial Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the narrow win of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election of 2016, have led to a wave of interest in the phenomenon of “fake news” – described usually as a piece of fabricated information that disseminates deceptive content or distorts actual news reports, shared on social media. Despite being a new term, “fake news” has also evolved very quickly and rapidly. The present article attempts to analyze how the term “fake news” is being developed in recent years. The article characterizes this relevant social phenomenon linked to cheating, misinformation and manipulation and also proposes its classification and definition.

Cognitive Reflection Effects on Time Discounting

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Białek ◽  
Przemysław Sawicki
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
Delay Discounting ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Cognitive Reflection Test ◽  
Process Information ◽  
Time Discounting ◽  
Cognitive Reflection ◽  
The Way

Abstract. In this work, we investigated individual differences in cognitive reflection effects on delay discounting – a preference for smaller sooner over larger later payoff. People are claimed to prefer more these alternatives they considered first – so-called reference point – over the alternatives they considered later. Cognitive reflection affects the way individuals process information, with less reflective individuals relying predominantly on the first information they consider, thus, being more susceptible to reference points as compared to more reflective individuals. In Experiment 1, we confirmed that individuals who scored high on the Cognitive Reflection Test discount less strongly than less reflective individuals, but we also show that such individuals are less susceptible to imposed reference points. Experiment 2 replicated these findings additionally providing evidence that cognitive reflection predicts discounting strength and (in)dependency to reference points over and above individual difference in numeracy.

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