Purpose

As the epidemic of online fake news is causing major concerns in contexts such as politics and public health, the current study aimed to elucidate the effect of certain “heuristic cues,” or key contextual features, which may increase belief in the credibility and the subsequent sharing of online fake news.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employed a 2 (news veracity: real vs fake) × 2 (social endorsements: low Facebook “likes” vs high Facebook “likes”) between-subjects experimental design (N = 239).

Findings

The analysis revealed that a high number of Facebook “likes” accompanying fake news increased the perceived credibility of the material compared to a low number of “likes.” In addition, the mediation results indicated that increased perceptions of news credibility may create a situation in which readers feel that it is necessary to cognitively elaborate on the information present in the news, and this active processing finally leads to sharing.

Practical implications

The results from this study help explicate what drives increased belief and sharing of fake news and can aid in refining interventions aimed at combating fake news for both communities and organizations.

Originality/value

The current study expands upon existing literature, linking the use of social endorsements to perceived credibility of fake news and information, and sheds light on the causal mechanisms through which people make the decision to share news articles on social media.

中文翻译：

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Facebook 上的假新闻：检验启发式线索对感知可信度和分享意图的影响

目的

由于网络假新闻的流行在政治和公共卫生等背景下引起了重大关注，目前的研究旨在阐明某些“启发式线索”或关键背景特征的影响，这可能会增加人们对可信度和随后的可信度的信心。分享网络假新闻。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究采用了 2（新闻真实性：真实与虚假）×2（社会认可：Facebook 低“赞”与 Facebook 高“赞”）的受试者间实验设计（N  = 239）。

发现

分析显示，与少量“点赞”相比，伴随假新闻的大量 Facebook“点赞”提高了材料的可信度。此外，中介结果表明，增加对新闻可信度的感知可能会造成读者觉得有必要对新闻中存在的信息进行认知阐述，这种主动加工最终导致分享。

实际影响

这项研究的结果有助于解释是什么推动了对假新闻的信任和分享，并有助于完善旨在打击社区和组织的假新闻的干预措施。

原创性/价值

目前的研究扩展了现有文献，将社会认可的使用与假新闻和信息的可信度联系起来，并阐明了人们决定在社交媒体上分享新闻文章的因果机制。