A recent study from Kennesaw State University has found that emotional triggers are a key reason why people believe and share fake news online. Aaron French, an associate professor at the Michael J. Coles College of Business, led the research, which was published in the journal Information Systems Frontiers.
“When information feels personally relevant or triggers anger or fear, people are far more likely to accept it, like it and share it,” French said.
French defines fake news as articles that pose as legitimate journalism but contain false information intended to deceive readers.
The research team, which included Amrita George and Veda C. Storey from Georgia State University and Joshua Madden from the University of Tennessee, analyzed about 10,000 social media posts from the 2020 coronavirus outbreak. They created a model called Content Dimensions–Overton Window–Perceived Utility to study how people assess questionable information during uncertain times. The model considers three main aspects: how true the news is (veracity), its emotional appeal, and its relevance to the reader’s life.
The study found that people are especially influenced by the tone and emotional content of news when deciding whether to believe or share it.
Veda C. Storey explained that what society considers “true enough” has shifted over time. “The Overton window acknowledges that people have a tolerance for a piece of information being close enough that they might not bother to spend time verifying it to be true,” she said. “The Window seems to be widening significantly, which results in people believing things that are more extreme.”
Storey added that this change allows fake news to become more extreme and reach a wider audience.
French compared fake news with tabloid stories: “Fake news resembles tabloid news in almost every way,” he said. “The difference is ambiguity. When a tabloid talks about celebrities having alien babies, people can easily tell it’s fake and just for entertainment. But fake news pretends to be real reporting.”
To address misinformation, French recommends education and careful verification of sources before reacting emotionally or sharing stories online. “When you read something, my recommendation is to avoid having an immediate emotional reaction,” he said. “Don’t go to social media and start posting or reacting to it. Go research if it’s something that you feel passionate about that really gets your emotions up. Check the source first and learn about it. Listen to the actual speech or read the actual document for yourself. Don’t just read one quick story, have an emotional reaction, and share the story without knowing what’s taking place.”
He highlighted Finland’s national media-literacy curriculum as an example of teaching students early on how information can be manipulated.
French also noted that artificial intelligence has made disinformation harder to detect because AI-generated images and videos can look very realistic. “AI doesn’t create fake news. People do,” he said. “But it makes disinformation far more effective. Some videos are so real you can’t tell the difference.”
Despite these challenges, French believes understanding why people fall for fake news is important for reducing misinformation in society.
“This study is important because once we understand those causes of why people start believing information, we can try to reduce misinformation and help people verify what they read,” he said. “We can develop approaches to overcome that and reduce that believability, reduce that viral impact. That’s how we get back to real conversations instead of emotional reactions.”
