Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.
Department of Psychology, New York University.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2023 Nov;152(11):3116-3134. doi: 10.1037/xge0001436. Epub 2023 Jun 22.
Online misinformation is disproportionality created and spread by people with extreme political attitudes, especially among the far-right. There is a debate in the literature about why people spread misinformation and what should be done about it. According to the purely cognitive account, people largely spread misinformation because they are lazy, not biased. According to a motivational account, people are also motivated to believe and spread misinformation for ideological and partisan reasons. To better understand the psychological and neurocognitive processes that underlie misinformation sharing among the far-right, we conducted a cross-cultural experiment with conservatives and far-right partisans in the Unites States and Spain ( = 1,609) and a neuroimaging study with far-right partisans in Spain ( = 36). Far-right partisans in Spain and U.S. Republicans who highly identify with Trump were more likely to share misinformation than center-right voters and other Republicans, especially when the misinformation was related to sacred values (e.g., immigration). Sacred values predicted misinformation sharing above and beyond familiarity, attitude strength, and salience of the issue. Moreover, far-right partisans were unresponsive to fact-checking and accuracy nudges. At a neural level, this group showed increased activity in brain regions implicated in mentalizing and norm compliance in response to posts with sacred values. These results suggest that the two components of political devotion-identity fusion and sacred values-play a key role in misinformation sharing, highlighting the identity-affirming dimension of misinformation sharing. We discuss the need for motivational and identity-based interventions to help curb misinformation for high-risk partisan groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
网络错误信息主要由具有极端政治态度的人,尤其是极右翼人士制造和传播。关于人们传播错误信息的原因以及应该如何应对,文献中存在争议。根据纯粹的认知观点,人们之所以大量传播错误信息,是因为他们懒惰,没有偏见。根据动机观点,人们出于意识形态和党派原因也有动机去相信和传播错误信息。为了更好地理解极右翼人群分享错误信息背后的心理和神经认知过程,我们在美国和西班牙进行了一项针对保守派和极右翼党派人士的跨文化实验(n = 1,609),并在西班牙对极右翼党派人士进行了一项神经影像学研究(n = 36)。与西班牙的极右翼党派人士和认同特朗普的美国共和党人相比,他们更有可能分享错误信息,尤其是当错误信息与神圣价值观(例如移民)有关时。神圣价值观预测了错误信息的分享,超过了熟悉度、态度强度和问题的显著性。此外,极右翼党派人士对事实核查和准确性提示无动于衷。在神经水平上,这群人在与神圣价值观相关的帖子中,大脑中与心理化和规范遵守相关的区域活动增加。这些结果表明,政治投入的两个组成部分——身份融合和神圣价值观——在错误信息分享中起着关键作用,突出了错误信息分享的身份肯定维度。我们讨论了需要基于动机和身份的干预措施,以帮助遏制高风险党派群体的错误信息。(PsycInfo 数据库记录(c)2024 APA,保留所有权利)。