This study examines the potential of fake news to produce effects on social media engagement as well as the moderating role of education and government approval. We report on a 2x2x2 online experiment conducted in Romania (N=813), in which we manipulated the level of facticity of a news story, its valence, and intention to deceive. Results show that ideologically driven news with a negative valence (rather than fabricated news or other genres, such as satire and parody) have a greater virality potential. However, neither the level of education nor government approval moderate this effect. Additionally, both positive and negative ideologically driven news stories enhance the probability that people will sign a document to support the government (i. e., potential for political engagement on social media). These latter effects are moderated by government approval: Lower levels of government approval lead to less support for the government on social media, as a consequence of fake news exposure.

中文翻译：

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虚假新闻是否会在社交媒体上带来更具吸引力的影响？来自罗马尼亚的证据

这项研究检查了假新闻对社交媒体参与产生影响的潜力，以及教育和政府批准的调节作用。我们报告了在罗马尼亚进行的2x2x2在线实验（N = 813），我们在其中操纵了新闻报道的真实性，其效价和欺骗意图。结果表明，由意识形态驱动的具有负价的新闻（而不是虚假新闻或其他流派，例如讽刺和模仿）具有更大的病毒传播潜力。但是，无论是教育水平还是政府的认可都不能减轻这种影响。此外，无论是正面还是负面的意识形态驱动的新闻报导，都增加了人们签署支持政府文件的可能性（即在社交媒体上进行政治参与的潜力）。