Why do People Read Fake News?

Andrea Robinson

ar195815@ohio.edu

 

Most media consumers crave content that fuels their biases. This lack of self-awareness makes these types of people vulnerable to "fake news" and exaggerated conspiracies. 

Extreme headline of made up stories, written by amateur writers with internet access, have more click appeal. People want to read outrageous rumors and believe that it is the truth. 

Picture source: challoners.com

It may be hard to decipher what is real and what is fake news when opinion writer (with very strong opinions) clutter social media sites. 

I personally find it hysterical, and a little offensive, that real news is being called fake and fake news is being praised as the truth. Maybe that's my own bias as a journalist, but I can't think of any of my colleagues having a hidden agenda to spread lies in the media. 

So why do people read and believe false information?

Research conducted through the University of Regina, Canada, found that American media consumers "are more likely to fall prey to misinformation because of lazy thinking than due to any subconscious desire to protect their political identities."

Dr. Gordon Pennycook and Dr. David Rand also noted in this study that bias does still affected a person's susceptibility to believing fake news. Though, overall these types of readers tend lack thinking and motivated reasoning. 

Rand also suggest that if people were to slow down their scrolling through social media, this would help them be less susceptible to misinformation.

The attraction to misleading information is the wild headlines that pose as click-bait for any reader who is looking to read something juicy. 

"Princess Diana's secret relationship with Bill Clinton REVEALED"

"WikiLeaks confirms Obama is an immigrant"

"Trump's daughter is planning to overthrow her dad's presidency" 

"American refugees seek asylum in New Zealand avid the covid outbreak" 

Oxford researchers found that "junk media" does well because it's not bound to ethics, logic or truth.

Unfortunately, it is not common sense to disregard headlines like this. In fact, the writer behind those type of stories knows this about their readers and hope to make a profit off their naive audience. 

One Facebook fake news writer named Paul Horner said he makes about $10,000 a moth from AdSense - ad revenue based on his content's reader traffic. 

More viral content, means more shares and views, which ultimately means more money for writers like Horner. 

Facebook and Goggle have both served as vehicles for dishing out fake news content and have received criticism for it. They received backlash, especially during the 2016 presidential election, that their sites were enabling the spread of false information. 

Some social media sites, like Twitter, have taken stronger steps to discrediting false information, but there isn't really a clear way to block it as that begins to toy with First Amendment laws.