Others are more vulnerable to fake news than I Am: Third-person effect of COVID-19 fake news on social media users
From Digital Culture & Society
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[edit] Others are more vulnerable to fake news than I Am: Third-person effect of COVID-19 fake news on social media users
Yang, J., & Tian, Y. (2021). “Others are more vulnerable to fake news than I Am”: Third-person effect of COVID-19 fake news on social media users. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106950–106950.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106950
[edit] Context
The Yang & Tian article is important as it discusses the belief that a lot of people on social media have, which is that fake news does not affect them. People believe that they are immune to fake news and that they are too knowledgeable to fall for fake news. People believe that others are more susceptible and are not as resistant as them when it comes to fake news. This is important to consider, as it can lead people to thinking they are invincible against fake news when this is not entirely the case. People know fake news is out there, but think it does not affect them. This is dangerous, because they will not look for warning signs that something is not credible or true, the same way they would if they saw themselves as susceptible. This is ultimately the danger that fake news causes, therefore having research to back this up proves the power that fake news has in our social media culture.
[edit] Overview
The Yang & Tian article first discusses and gives an overview of the dangers of fake news sharing, and the belief users have that allow them to feel above the spread of fake news. The article discusses details of third-person perception (TPP), which is the understanding that people tend to believe others are more influenced by media messages than they are themselves. They look at factors that affect TPP such as communal & social media engagement, mediators of communal engagement, negative affect, perceived knowledge and self-efficacy. Yang & Tian used a 23 question online survey, which was sent out to a diverse group of 985 respondents. This survey looked to measure five specific variables: fake news gap, self-efficacy, negative affect, perceived knowledge, and communal social media engagement. The results showed that TPP of Covid-19 fake news susceptibility is common throughout respondents. Yang & Tian concluded that a lot of participants were intrigued by fake news, but this fake news did not have cognitive or behavioural effects on them. This is due to a lack of behavioural persuasion in fake news messaging. However, participants believe that others would be more exposed to fake news, and that exposure would lead to cognitive behavioural effects on others, rather than themselves. Yet, people that are more active on social media, tend to feel more negatively, or worried about Covid-19.
[edit] Strengths and Weaknesses
The Yang & Tian article is very strong in its ability to use this research to further understand TPP in the context of Covid-19 and disinformation on social media. The article used research to aid in understanding why people often feel overly optimistic, or make judgement mistakes when they see fake news surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic on social media. This study looks at how people see themselves as above falling for fake news and think others do not have the same ability to resist against these fake new discourses. This article is one of the first to look at an underdeveloped area (TPP) and apply it to the Covid-19 pandemic, disinformation and the new media environment. Yang & Tian’s research corroborated that social media increases TPP through the idea that the more we are exposed to something, the more we believe it has an impact on us. Yang & Tian added new information about how social media tends to show us more of what we think is true, leading people to thinking they are not affected by, or susceptible to fake news, the same way that others are.
A weakness or limitation of the Yang & Tian article is the fact that the research they have conducted is focused on social media as a whole. Different platforms may have different effects on people, their TPP, and their ability to detect or believe fake news. Results may vary from platforms like Twitter, to something like TikTok. Meaning that these results may not always stand true based on the platform. Another weakness of this article is that the results of this study may not apply to different topics, but rather, these results only apply to the topic of Covid-19. Other messages may show other outcomes when researched in relation to TPP. The final weakness of this research is the fact that Yang & Tian did not consider external and personal factors that can construct people’s trust and susceptibility to fake news. Considering factors like connection/trust level with the source, people’s attitude toward the topic, and political standings are all aspects that could affect the results of this study.
[edit] Assessment
The Yang & Tian article extensively looked into how to understand TPP, Covid-19 and disinformation, in relation to one another. It demonstrated the effects that TPP had on people's perceived susceptibility of fake news for themselves, versus how they perceive this for other people. This article would be useful for people wanting to understand who is/who thinks they are susceptible to fake news. Future research could be done to look at specific platforms, as they are often very different from each other and disseminate information in different ways. Those results can be analyzed to see if fake news susceptibility is, or is not, platform specific. Future research could also look at if TPP results are the same for research studies on topics other than Covid-19.
Sb19qp 12:55, 9 December 2023 (EST)
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