Abstract

Analytic and intuitive reasoning processes have been implicated as important determinants of belief in (or skepticism of) fake news. However, the underlying cognitive mechanisms that encourage endorsement of fake news remain unclear. The present study investigated cognitive decoupling/response inhibition and the potential role of conflict processing in the initiation of analytic thought about fake news as factors that may facilitate skepticism. A base-rate task was used to test the hypotheses that conflict processing deficits and inefficient response inhibition would be related to stronger endorsement of fake news. In support of these hypotheses, increased belief in fake (but not real) news was associated with a smaller decrease in response confidence in the presence (vs. absence) of conflict and with inefficient (in terms of response latency) inhibition of prepotent responses. Through its support for these hypotheses, the present study advances efforts to determine who will fall for fake news, and why.

摘要

分析和直觉推理过程被认为是对假新闻的信仰（或怀疑）的重要决定因素。然而，鼓励支持假新闻的潜在认知机制仍不清楚。本研究调查了认知解耦/反应抑制以及冲突处理在将假新闻作为可能促进怀疑的因素的分析性思考中的潜在作用。使用基本率任务来测试冲突处理缺陷和低效反应抑制与假新闻的更强认可有关的假设。为支持这些假设，对虚假（但不是真实）新闻的信念增加与对存在的反应信心的较小下降相关（与 没有）冲突和低效（在反应延迟方面）抑制优势反应。通过支持这些假设，本研究推进了确定谁会爱上假新闻以及原因的努力。