The psychology of fake news: an exploratory inquiry into social media users' consumption of fake news

• Main Authors: Angeles, Patrick Joshua M., Pangilinan, Timothy Joseph S., Torres, Anthony Carl A., Villabroza, Jose Lorenzo V.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Fake news; Social media; Psychology; Social Media
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/7362
• Institution: De La Salle University

Fake news is an old plight in society that has become an even more damaging product due to the rise of social media. Majority of the research on fake news is made to assess strategies in fighting fake news and profile the type of people who are susceptible to being fooled by it. In this study, the researchers explore the social media user' reasons for consuming fake news by utilizing previously assumed factors in fake news' proliferation as possible reasons also, and, at the same time, allow for new, non-researched reasons to surface. The researchers find that the previously assumed factors for fake news proliferation are also reasons for social media users' fake news consumption. Several new and previously unstudied reasons for consumption have also surfaced.