Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
12-2021
Abstract
Research on the sharing of fake news has primarily focused on the manner in which fake news spreads and the literary style of fake news. These studies, however, do not explain how characteristics of fake news could affect people’s inclination toward sharing these news articles. Drawing on the Terror Management Theory, we proposed that fake news is more likely to elicit death-related thoughts than real news. Consequently, to manage the existential anxiety that had been produced, people share the news articles to feel connected to close others as a way of resolving the existential anxiety. Across three experimental studies (total N = 416), we found that it was not news type per se (i.e., real versus fake news) that influenced news-sharing intentions; instead, it was the increased accessibility to death-related thoughts elicited from the content of news articles that motivated news-sharing. The findings support the Terror Management framework and contribute to the existing literature by providing an empirical examination of the underlying psychological motive behind fake news-sharing tendencies.
Keywords
Fake news, Terror management theory, Mortality salience, Death-thought accessibility, News-sharing
Discipline
Applied Behavior Analysis | Communication Technology and New Media
Publication
Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
Volume
6
Issue
1
First Page
1
Last Page
14
ISSN
2365-7464
Identifier
10.1186/s41235-021-00306-0
Publisher
Springer Open
Embargo Period
7-1-2021
Citation
LIM, Amy J., TAN, Edison, & LIM, Tania.(2021). Infodemic: The effect of death-related thoughts on news-sharing. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 6(1), 1-14.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3317
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00306-0