Sindermann Cornelia, Schmitt Helena Sophia, Rozgonjuk Dmitri, Elhai Jon D, Montag Christian
Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, 89081 Ulm, Germany.
Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Heliyon. 2021 Mar 27;7(3):e06503. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06503. eCollection 2021 Mar.
Individual differences in cognitive abilities and personality help to understand individual differences in various human behaviors. Previous work investigated individual characteristics in light of believing (i.e., misclassifying) fake news. However, only little is known about the misclassification of true news as fake, although it appears equally important to correctly identify fake and true news for unbiased belief formation. An online study with = 530 ( = 396 men) participants was conducted to investigate performance in a Fake and True News Test in association with i) performance in fluid and crystallized intelligence tests and the Big Five Inventory, and ii) news consumption as a mediating variable between individual characteristics and performance in the Fake and True News Test. Results showed that fluid intelligence was negatively correlated with believing fake news (the association did not remain significant in a regression model); crystallized intelligence was negatively linked to misclassifying true news. Extraversion was negatively and crystallized intelligence was positively associated with fake and true news discernment. The number of different news sources consumed correlated negatively with misclassifying true news and positively with fake and true news discernment. However, no meaningful mediation effect of news consumption was observed. Only interpersonal trust was negatively related to misclassifying both fake and true news as well as positively related to news discernment. The present findings reveal that underlying factors of believing fake news and misclassifying true news are mostly different. Strategies that might help to improve the abilities to identify both fake and true news based on the present findings are discussed.
认知能力和个性的个体差异有助于理解人类各种行为中的个体差异。先前的研究从相信（即误判）假新闻的角度调查了个体特征。然而，对于将真实新闻误判为假新闻的情况却知之甚少，尽管正确识别假新闻和真实新闻对于形成无偏见的信念似乎同样重要。我们进行了一项有530名参与者（396名男性）的在线研究，以调查在真假新闻测试中的表现与以下因素的关联：i）流体智力和晶体智力测试以及大五人格量表中的表现；ii）新闻消费作为个体特征与真假新闻测试表现之间的中介变量。结果表明，流体智力与相信假新闻呈负相关（在回归模型中这种关联不再显著）；晶体智力与将真实新闻误判呈负相关。外向性与真假新闻辨别呈负相关，晶体智力与真假新闻辨别呈正相关。所消费的不同新闻来源数量与将真实新闻误判呈负相关，与真假新闻辨别呈正相关。然而，未观察到新闻消费有有意义的中介效应。只有人际信任与将假新闻和真实新闻都误判呈负相关，与新闻辨别呈正相关。本研究结果表明，相信假新闻和将真实新闻误判的潜在因素大多不同。基于本研究结果，讨论了可能有助于提高识别假新闻和真实新闻能力的策略。
