Factors Predicting Willingness to Share COVID-19 Misinformation

We conducted a preregistered exploratory survey to assess whether patterns of individual differences in political orientation, social dominance orientation (SDO), traditionalism, conspiracy ideation, or attitudes about science predict willingness to share different kinds of misinformation regarding...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in psychology 2020-09, Vol.11, p.566108-566108
Main Authors: Lobato, Emilio J. C., Powell, Maia, Padilla, Lace M. K., Holbrook, Colin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
conspiracy theories
COVID-19
misinformation
political orientation
Psychology
social media
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Summary:We conducted a preregistered exploratory survey to assess whether patterns of individual differences in political orientation, social dominance orientation (SDO), traditionalism, conspiracy ideation, or attitudes about science predict willingness to share different kinds of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic online. Analyses revealed two orthogonal models of individual differences predicting the willingness to share misinformation over social media platforms. Both models suggest a sizable role of different aspects of political belief, particularly SDO, in predicting tendencies to share different kinds of misinformation, predominantly conspiracy theories. Although exploratory, results from this study can contribute to the formulation of a socio-cognitive profile of individuals who act as vectors for the spread of scientific misinformation online, and can be useful for computationally modeling misinformation diffusion.
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566108