Reading, Commenting and Sharing of Fake News: How Online Bandwagons and Bots Dictate User Engagement

Do social media users read, comment, and share false news more than real news? Does it matter if the story is written by a bot and whether it is endorsed by many others? We conducted a selective-exposure experiment (N = 171) to answer these questions. Results showed that real articles were more likely to receive “likes” whereas false articles were more likely to receive comments. Users commented more on a bot-written article when it received fewer likes. We explored the psychological mechanisms underlying these findings in Study 2 (N = 284). Data indicate that users’ engagement with online news is largely driven by emotions elicited by news content and heuristics triggered by interface cues, such that curiosity increases consumption of real news, whereas uneasiness triggered by a high number of “likes” encourages comments on fake news.

María D. Molina et al, Reading, Commenting and Sharing of Fake News: How Online Bandwagons and Bots Dictate User Engagement, Communication Research (50, 6) pp. 667-694. Copyright © 2022. DOI: 10.1177/00936502211073398. Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference. For permission to reuse an article, please follow our Process for Requesting Permission.

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Work Title Reading, Commenting and Sharing of Fake News: How Online Bandwagons and Bots Dictate User Engagement
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Maria D. Molina
  2. Jinping Wang
  3. S. Shyam Sundar
  4. Thai Le
  5. Carlina DiRusso
Keyword
  1. engagement
  2. social media
  3. misinformation
  4. automated journalism
  5. heuristics
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Communication Research
Publication Date March 27, 2022
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502211073398
Deposited October 14, 2024

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added CR_RR2_9_20_v2.docx
  • Added Creator Maria D. Molina
  • Added Creator Jinping Wang
  • Added Creator S. Shyam Sundar
  • Added Creator Thai Le
  • Added Creator Carlina DiRusso
  • Published
  • Updated
  • Updated Keyword, Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • engagement, social media, misinformation, automated journalism, heuristics
    Publication Date
    • 2022-01-01
    • 2022-03-27

Version 2
published

  • Created
  • Deleted CR_RR2_9_20_v2.docx
  • Added CR_RR2_9_20_CLEAN_12_19_2024.docx
  • Published
  • Updated