Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.
Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2023 Mar 22;18(3):e0282308. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282308. eCollection 2023.
Misinformation has emerged as a major societal concern. But why do citizens contribute to the dissemination of falsehoods online? This article investigates this question by focusing on the role of motivated reasoning and, in particular, perceptions of group-based conflict. It examines the effect of perceived conflict on the endorsement of false news in the context of a regional conflict between Russia and the West as experienced by Ukrainian citizens. In our survey experiment, a sample of Ukrainians (N = 1,615) was randomly assigned to read negative false news stories about Russia, the European Union or Tanzania-a country with no stakes in the conflict. The results show that higher perceived conflict between Ukraine and Russia makes Ukrainians less likely to endorse false news targeting the European Union, but more likely to endorse false news that paint a negative picture of Russia. This finding extends the support for motivated reasoning theory beyond Western contexts investigated so far. Importantly, the effects of conflict perceptions remain strong after controlling for group identity and political knowledge of participants. These results advance our understanding of why false information is disseminated and point to the importance of conflict de-escalation to prevent the diffusion of falsehoods.
错误信息已成为一个主要的社会关注点。但是，为什么公民会在网上传播虚假信息呢？本文通过关注动机推理的作用，特别是基于群体的冲突感知，来研究这个问题。它考察了在乌克兰公民经历的俄罗斯与西方之间的地区冲突背景下，感知到的冲突对支持虚假新闻的影响。在我们的调查实验中，一组乌克兰人（N=1615）被随机分配阅读关于俄罗斯、欧盟或坦桑尼亚的负面虚假新闻故事，坦桑尼亚与冲突没有利害关系。结果表明，乌克兰和俄罗斯之间感知到的冲突加剧，使乌克兰人不太可能支持针对欧盟的虚假新闻，但更有可能支持对俄罗斯持负面看法的虚假新闻。这一发现将动机推理理论的支持扩展到了迄今为止所调查的西方背景之外。重要的是，在控制参与者的群体身份和政治知识后，冲突感知的影响仍然很强。这些结果增进了我们对为什么会传播虚假信息的理解，并指出了冲突降级以防止虚假信息扩散的重要性。
