Whether you’re a corona denier or a climate skeptic, fake news is hugely popular. But with whom? Some people are more prone to believing crude theories than others, a new study shows. Accordingly, certain personality traits are decisive.
Messages such as “Corona vaccines make you infertile” and “Those who drink bleach kill the viruses” flickered across hundreds of thousands of screens during the pandemic. A YouTuber who accuses Bill Gates of wanting to minimize humanity with the help of bioweapons from Ukraine reaches just as many viewers. He is celebrated for it in the comment column – no trace of doubt.
It only takes a few clicks to realize that these posts aren’t true. That they have long since been scientifically or officially refuted. For some, pure reason is enough – for example, when Angela Merkel is described as a reptilian with fantasies of world power. But instead of being exposed as a mere lie, this disinformation is shared thousands of times. Fake news is hugely popular. But with whom?
Jan Philipp Rudloff and Markus Appel from the University of Würzburg have dealt with this question in a new study. “Of course there isn’t one type of person who necessarily believes in fake news,” explains psychologist Rudloff in an interview with ntv.de. However, there are traits that make people more susceptible to believing false reports, Rudloff found. The decisive factor is the individual understanding of what knowledge and facts actually are – one also speaks of so-called epistemic beliefs.
People evaluate the accuracy of information in different ways. While some value solid evidence, others value intuition. They don’t feel the need to back up their gut feelings with evidence – opinion and facts are equal for them. There are also different views as to whether there are objective facts or whether they were simply created by politicians for their own benefit. “We wanted to know how these properties relate to the ability to distinguish between true and false headlines,” Rudloff explains the research question.
To find out, they presented various reports to 600 subjects from the USA. All the news was already circulating in the media, such as “1.5 million fewer jobs were created in the first three years under Trump than in the last three years of Obama’s tenure.” Respondents were then asked to rate the truthfulness of these messages, and then indicate how much they trusted their gut feeling when answering and how much they valued evidence. The result: people who rely heavily on their intuition, place little value on evidence, and who believe facts are created by those in power are more vulnerable to fake news. “Anyone who doesn’t believe in facts anyway has difficulty distinguishing false from true reports,” Rudloff summarizes.
However, this is not the only trait that connects people susceptible to fake news. The researchers encountered another trait: the dark personality. There are many dark personality traits. “The three best known, however, are narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy,” explains Rudloff. “They’re also called the dark triad.” While narcissistic people feel superior and like to be the center of attention, Machiavellian people strive for power and status. Psychopathy traits, on the other hand, are characterized by impulsive and fearless behavior. These characteristics have a common core, says the psychologist. “People with a strong Dark Factor personality are solely concerned with their own benefit – without regard for others.”
The study focused on this common denominator. The respondents also had to answer how important it is to them to assert their own interests. If necessary, at the expense of their fellow human beings. The researchers were able to determine how strong the participants’ dark personality traits were. The result confirms the researchers’ theory: the stronger the dark factor in the personality of the test subjects, the more they doubted that there was a difference between facts and opinions. Rudloff explains the connection as follows: “Anyone who is only concerned with their own advantage tries to bend reality in such a way that it fits into their own world view.” Fake news often comes in handy.
The consequences of this were recently shown in the pandemic. Because anyone who believed with the appropriate epistemic conviction that the corona virus was harmless did not consider it necessary to be vaccinated. If you then added dark personality traits, you didn’t do it for others either. The message “Vaccinations make you infertile” fit perfectly into their own world view.
The international climate protection organization IPCC fears that something similar could now happen in the fight against the climate crisis. For example, misinformation about climate change “and the willful undermining of science have led to a misrepresentation of the scientific consensus,” according to a February report by the organization. The result: “Ignorance, disregard for risks and the urgency of the crises and disagreements.”
However, if 97 percent of climate researchers come to the conclusion that climate change is man-made, you can’t have a second opinion, says Rudloff. Because from a certain amount of evidence one speaks of a fact. “But some people don’t go that route – for them, all opinions are equal.”
The psychologist therefore advocates teaching children and young people how to deal with knowledge, facts and opinions. “Because it is precisely at this stage that our epistemic beliefs emerge.” What can still be taught in school is hardly possible in adulthood. Also because epistemic beliefs can be a good shield against the arguments of others. “Once you have come to the supposed realization that opinions are equal, you can still present so many facts,” says Rudloff. “She or he will always block these.”