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Fighting Fake News with Accuracy: Dual Processing Perspective
Harutyunyan, Mikayel ; Chytilová, Julie (advisor) ; Červinka, Michal (referee)
The phenomenon of "fake news", or misleading online content, is increasingly worrisome due to its large-scale socio-economic impact. Researchers and practitioners attempted to understand what drives the virality and believability of fake news and how to reduce its influence. This research aims to shed light on these questions. Building upon a theoretical account positing that people share fake news because they simply fail to engage in deliberate thinking, we designed an accuracy prompt intervention to encourage people to think effortfully. In a pre-registered study conducted via Prolific (N = 520), we find limited evidence supporting accuracy prompts stylized as warning labels, but only for increasing sharing discernment in true, not fake news. The veracity of news articles does not impact sharing intentions, despite having a sizeable effect on accuracy judgments. This and other findings support the dual processing theory of cognition in the context of fake news. Predispositions towards more intuitive thinking increased belief in fake news and higher distrust in true news. Conversely, a better ability to engage in effortful thinking increases truth discernment. In addition, confirmation bias decreases truth discernment and increases sharing intentions. Politically concordant true headlines are...
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The Truth Behind the Lies: The Experiment
Harutyunyan, Mikayel ; Chytilová, Julie (advisor) ; Matoušek, Jindřich (referee)
The Truth Behind The Lies: The Experiment. Abstract The following thesis presents an economic experiment exploring the patterns of cheating behaviors among secondary school students. The students filled in the Big Five and the Dark Triad personality inventories, for which they were rewarded. The payoff in sweets was determined by a die roll. Since the outcomes of the die throw were known only to the subjects, they could decide whether to report the real outcome of the die roll or deceive. Subsequent analysis showed that a certain fraction of participants cheated, but some of them claimed a non-maximal payoff. We also find the appeal to honesty ineffective in reducing the cheating rate. Additionally, we find positive correlation between narcissism, extraversion and cheating, while openness to experience, neuroticism and Morality, a facet of agreeableness, covary negatively with dishonesty. Individuals with poor academic ability cheat less, while subjects who perform better at the Cognitive Reflection Test appear to deceive more. Furthermore, indicators of "unstable" family environment (divorced or unemployed parents) are positively associated with cheating, whilst the effect of a more affluent family background is equivocal. Ultimately, females seem to forgo the opportunity of cheating to a full extent and...
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