Fake or real news? Understanding the gratifications and personality traits of individuals sharing fake news on social media platforms
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-08-2021-0232 |
| Published date | 17 January 2022 |
| Date | 17 January 2022 |
| Pages | 840-876 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
| Author | Brinda Sampat,Sahil Raj |
Fake or real news? Understanding
the gratifications and personality
traits of individuals sharing fake
news on social media platforms
Brinda Sampat
NMIMS Global Access School for Continuing Education,
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies University, Mumbai, India, and
Sahil Raj
School of Management Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, India
Abstract
Purpose –“Fake news”or misinformationsharing using social media sites into public discourse or politics has
increased dramatically, over the last few years, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic causing concern.
However, this phenomenon is inadequately researched. This study examines fake news sharing with the lens of
stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, uses and gratification theory (UGT) and big five personality traits
(BFPT) theory to understand the motivations for sharing fake news and the personality traits that do so. The
stimuli in the model comprise gratifications (pass time, entertainment, socialization, information sharing and
information seeking) and personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness and
neuroticism). The feeling of authenticating or instantly sharing news is the organism leading to sharing fake
news, which forms the response in the study.
Design/methodology/approach –The conceptual model was tested by the data collected from a sample of
221 social media users in India. The data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling
to determine the effects of UGT and personality traits on fake news sharing. The moderating role of the
platform WhatsApp or Facebook was studied.
Findings –The results suggest that pass time, information sharing and socialization gratifications lead to
instant sharing news on social media platforms. Individuals who exhibit extraversion, neuroticism and
openness share news on social media platforms instantly. In contrast, agreeableness and conscientiousness
personality traits lead to authentication news before sharing on the social media platform.
Originality/value –This study contributes to social media literature by identifying the user gratifications
and personality traits that lead to sharing fake news on social media platforms. Furthermore, the study also
sheds light on the moderating influence of the choice of the social media platform for fake news sharing.
Keywords Fake news, Uses and gratification theory, Big five personality trait theory, Stimulus-organism-
response, WhatsApp, Facebook
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The phenomenal upsurge in the usage of social media platforms has impacted how
individuals share and consume information (Apuke and Omar, 2021b;Thompson et al., 2020).
An individual’s freedom of expression in tweets, posts and comments has led to this
exponential growth in the usage of social media platforms (Torres et al., 2018). However,
freedom of expression is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, social media users can
express their pleasure and displeasure unadulterated (Kohli et al., 2015). On the other hand,
social media platforms are used to spread misinformation (false information shared by
misguided or misinformed individuals) and disinformation (false information or fabricated
stories shared with the intent to misguide individuals) collectively known as fake news
(Karlova and Fisher, 2013). Fake news denotes false and misleading information (Allcott and
Gentzkow, 2017). Recently, the youth who use social media platforms for content creation and
consumption have aggravated this phenomenon (Pang, 2020;Busselle and Greenberg, 2000).
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2050-3806.htm
Received 15 August 2021
Revised 13 November 2021
12 December 2021
Accepted 31 December 2021
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 74 No. 5, 2022
pp. 840-876
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-08-2021-0232
The spread of fake news has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic (Apuke and
Omar, 2021b). News articles suggest various home remedies and magical medicines that
enhance immunity (Pennycook et al., 2020;Russonello, 2020). The probability of spreading
fake news is higher than authentic information (Bessi, 2017;Popat et al., 2017). Various social
networking sites seek measures to address the consequences of fake news. Facebook (FB) and
Instagram have expanded their third-party fact-checking program (Chaturvedi, 2019).
WhatsApp (WA) has eliminated the quick forward feature and added “forward”messages to
control the unprecedented virality of messages (Agarwal, 2018). However, the unrestricted
flow of information on social media weighs more than the measures undertaken to check
fake news.
India’s social media users will be 422.7 million in 2022 (Keelery, 2020). Economical Internet
usage rates in India have further fueled the growth of social media. Despite the 400 million
Internet users, India lacks digital literacy and social media regulations (Akash et al., 2021;
Al-Zaman, 2021). In the recent past, several cases of fake news gathered headlines in the
Indian media across different sectors (Chaturvedi, 2019). Organizations, too, have faced
the brunt of fake news (Parsons, 2020). Apart from the ramifications on the organizations,
fake news erodes public trust, harms individuals and organizations and poses a significant
danger to national integrity, especially in the pandemic.
The review of prior literature on fake news sharing behavior suggests four significant
research gaps. First, apart from global carnage caused by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic,
researchers have highlighted the detrimental effects of fake news in the present precarious
situation (ahinkorah et al., 2020). It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between
real and fake news (Zhou et al., 2020). Past scholars have suggested that although fake news
always poses a threat; however fake news related to health issues poses a grave threat to
society (Apuke and Omar, 2021a), which needs to be studied. The spread of fake information
regarding health issues is a common phenomenon accentuated by social media platforms
during the current COVID-19 pandemic (Lampos et al., 2021). The gravity of the situation can
be gaged by the fact that different countries are categorically urging their citizens to verify
the authenticity of news before sharing it (Hou et al., 2020;Huynh, 2020). Considering the
potential damage caused by fake news, scholars have suggested researching the motivation
for fake news sharing behavior, particularly in the current pandemic (Apuke and Omar,
2021a,b).
Second, research has reported that sharing news on social media is governed by various
gratifications like socializati on (SOC), information sharing (ISH), status-seeking and
information seeking (ISE) (Lee and Ma, 2012;Thompson et al., 2020). However, there is a
need to examine the influence of various gratifications, as not all types of gratifications have a
similar effect on the participation of individuals on social media (Kamboj, 2020).
Third, personality traits are associated with the way people use social media to consume
and disseminate information (Gil de Z
u~
niga et al., 2017). The big five personality traits (BFPT)
theory has been extensively applied to decipher the influence of various personality traits on
social media usage (Vaid and Harari, 2021;Gil de Z
u~
niga et al., 2017). Liu and Campbell (2017)
found a close association between neuroticism (NE) personality traits and excessive usage of
social networking sites. However, there is a dearth of research on the association between
fake news sharing and individuals’personality traits. Gumelar et al. (2018) suggest that
personality traits influence fake news sharing. Thus, personality traits can help decipher an
individual’s psychological motivations to share fake news.
Lastly, social media platforms influence fake news sharing. Ali and Zain-ul-abdin (2021)
reported that FB is the most widely used platform for spreading fake news. Banaji et al. (2019)
conducted an independent survey and found WA as the major social media platform to
spread fake news resulting in communal disharmony. According to Statista, as of January
2021, the top social media platforms are YouTube, FB and WA (Keelery, 2021). Another study
Sharing fake
news on social
media
platforms
841
pointed out as of February 2021, the social media users across platforms by usage in India
were WA, YouTube and FB (Keelery, 2021). Kadam and Atre (2020) have suggested
investigating the phenomenon of fake news in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the
fake news in India is generated through prominent online media platforms (Al-Zaman, 2021);
thus, we suggest that investigating the role of online platforms (WA and FB) can help better
understand the individual’s fake news sharing behavior.
The research gaps mentioned above are addressed in this study by seeking answers to
three research questions:
RQ1. What gratifications motivate users to share fake news on social media?
RQ2. What personality traits of users govern fake news sharing on social media?
RQ3. Does the choice of social media platform (WA or FB) affect the linkages among
study variables, and, if so, how?
We used the theoretical lens of the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework similar to
several studies in consumer behavior in social media (Cao and Sun, 2018;Islam and Rahman,
2017;Kamboj et al., 2018;Tuncer, 2021). SOR enables us to build a framework based on
stimulus, organism and response. The user and gratifications theory (UGT) and BFPT theory
act as stimuli in the study. Furthermore, we draw upon the fake news literature to identify the
feeling of instantly sharing news and the sense of authenticating news before sharing as the
organism (Talwar et al., 2019;Talwar et al., 2020c). Finally, the response is sharing fake
news (SFN).
This study makes the following contributions (1) it addresses the factors that cause fake
news to spread in developing countries (Apuke and Omar, 2021a;Duffy et al., 2020); (2) the
study contributes to the existing literature on the user motivations to share fake news by
applying three theories, namely, SOR, BFPT theory and UGT; (3) the study focuses on an
emerging economy, India, having the second-highest number of social media users globally
(Tankovska, 2021). The following sections discuss the theoretical underpinning, hypotheses
proposed in the study, the methodology used to collect and analyze data. Further, the
discussion, conclusion and implications are presented.
2. Theoretical underpinning
2.1 Stimulus- organism-response framework
The study is based on the SOR framework to examine the influence of personality traits and
user gratifications on fake news sharing behavior. Past scholars have suggested individuals’
personality traits influence fake news sharing behavior (Apuke and Omar, 2021a,b).
Furthermore, scholars have also suggested that user gratifications also influence fake news
sharing behavior (Chen, 2016). The SOR framework encompasses the three elements:
stimulus, organism and response (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). It suggests that several
aspects of the environment provoke an individual’s emotional and cognitive condition,
thereby acting as stimuli (S) that affect an individual’s internal states (O), which drive an
individual’s behavior as a response (R). Studies suggest several attributes impact an
individual’s internal states to participate in communities (Islam et al., 2020;Wang and
Fesenmaier, 2003). The present study considers user gratifications (ISH , ISE, pass time (PS),
entertainment(ENT) and SOC) (Apuke and Omar, 2021b;Katz and Blumler, 1974;Thompson
et al., 2020) and an individual’s personality traits (NE , conscientiousness (CON), extraversion
(EX), openness (OP) and agreeableness (AG)) (Judge et al., 1999) to be the stimuli for users to
authenticate news before sharing or share them instantly. The organism, the second element
in the SOR framework, refers to the internal processes intervening in the inputs and final
responses are based on user perception and evaluations (Aljukhadar et al., 2020). Individuals
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