Cited by 879Misinformation and Its ImpactsEpistemology, Ethics, and MetaphysicsEducational Strategies and Epistemologies

Who falls for fake news? The roles of bullshit receptivity, overclaiming, familiarity, and analytic thinking

Open access
Pennycook, Gordon, Rand, David G.·2020·Journal of Personality

Abstract

Objective: Fake news represents a particularly egregious and direct avenue by which inaccurate beliefs have been propagated via social media. We investigate the psychological profile of individuals who fall prey to fake news. Method: We recruited 1,606 participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk for three online surveys. Results: The tendency to ascribe profundity to randomly generated sentences—pseudo‐profound bullshit receptivity—correlates positively with perceptions of fake news accuracy, and negatively with the ability to differentiate between fake and real news (media truth discernment). Relatedly, individuals who overclaim their level of knowledge also judge fake news to be more accurate. We also extend previous research indicating that analytic thinking correlates negatively with perceived accuracy by showing that this relationship is not moderated by the presence/absence of the headline’s source (which has no effect on accuracy), or by familiarity with the headlines (which correlates positively with perceived accuracy of fake and real news). Conclusion: Our results suggest that belief in fake news may be driven, to some extent, by a general tendency to be overly accepting of weak claims. This tendency, which we refer to as reflexive open‐mindedness, may be partly responsible for the prevalence of epistemically suspect beliefs writ large.

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Crossref · 10.1111/jopy.12476

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  • Evidence suggests that deliberation is associated with reduced belief in false news headlines that circulated on social media.

    “Evidence suggests that deliberation is associated with 134-136 and causes 137 reduced belief in false news headlines that circulated on social media.”

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Authors
Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G.
Affiliations
  • University of Regina (CA)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
Corresponding author
Pennycook, Gordon
Venue
Journal of Personality
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2019-04-12
Volume
88
Issue
2
Pages
185-200
ISSN
  • 0022-3506 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-6494
OpenAlex
W3122883818
Cited by
879
References
96
Citations by year
2026: 78 · 2025: 98 · 2024: 119 · 2023: 119 · 2022: 117 · 2021: 134 · 2020: 122 · 2019: 64 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 3
FWCI
220.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Personality (publishedVersion)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Strategies and Epistemologies
Keywords
fake news, bullshit receptivity, pseudo-profound bullshit, overclaiming, analytical thinking, source credibility, social media misinformation
MeSH terms
Adult, Female, Humans, Deception, Male, Personality, Thinking, Recognition, Psychology, Social Media

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