Happiness and surprise are associated with worse truth discernment of COVID-19 headlines among social media users in Nigeria

Author(s)
Rosenzweig, Leah R; Bago, Bence; Berinsky, Adam J; Rand, David G
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Abstract
<jats:p>Do emotions we experience after reading headlines help us discern true from false information or cloud our judgement? Understanding whether emotions are associated with distinguishing truth from fiction and sharing information has implications for interventions designed to curb the spread of misinformation. Among 1,341 Facebook users in Nigeria, we find that emotions—specifically happiness and surprise—are associated with greater belief in and sharing of false, relative to true, COVID-19 headlines. Respondents who are older are more reflective, and do not support the ruling party are better at discerning true from false COVID-19 information.</jats:p>
Date issued
2021
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144238
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science; Sloan School of Management
Journal
Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review
Publisher
Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics, and Public Policy
Citation
Rosenzweig, Leah R, Bago, Bence, Berinsky, Adam J and Rand, David G. 2021. "Happiness and surprise are associated with worse truth discernment of COVID-19 headlines among social media users in Nigeria." Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review.
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