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Emotion may predict susceptibility to fake news but emotion regulation does not help

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  • Bago, Bence
  • Rosenzweig, Leah
  • Berinsky, Adam
  • Rand, David

Abstract

Misinformation is a serious concern for societies across the globe. To design effective interventions to combat the belief in and spread of misinformation, we must understand which psychological processes influence susceptibility to misinformation. This paper tests the widely assumed -- but largely untested -- claim that people are worse at identifying true versus false headlines when the headlines are emotionally provocative. Consistent with this proposal, we found correlational evidence that overall emotional response at the headline level is associated with diminished truth discernment, except for experienced anger which was associated with increased truth discernment. A second set of studies tested a popular emotion regulation intervention where people were asked to apply either emotional suppression or emotion reappraisal techniques when considering the veracity of several headlines. In contrast to the correlation results, we found no evidence that emotion regulation helped people distinguish false from true news headlines.

Suggested Citation

  • Bago, Bence & Rosenzweig, Leah & Berinsky, Adam & Rand, David, 2021. "Emotion may predict susceptibility to fake news but emotion regulation does not help," IAST Working Papers 21-127, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    • Handle: RePEc:tse:iastwp:126240
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gordon Pennycook & Ziv Epstein & Mohsen Mosleh & Antonio A. Arechar & Dean Eckles & David G. Rand, 2021. "Shifting attention to accuracy can reduce misinformation online," Nature, Nature, vol. 592(7855), pages 590-595, April.
    2. Bence Bago & David Rand & Gordon Pennycook, 2020. "Fake news, fast and slow: Deliberation reduces belief in false (but not true) news headlines," Post-Print hal-03477497, HAL.
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    4. Shane Frederick, 2005. "Cognitive Reflection and Decision Making," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 25-42, Fall.
    5. Jonathan Evans, 2012. "Spot the difference: distinguishing between two kinds of processing," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 11(1), pages 121-131, June.
    6. Leah Rosenzweig & Bence Bago & Adam J. Berinsky & David Rand, 2021. "Happiness and Surprise are associated with worse truth discernment of COVID-19 headlines among social media users in Nigeria," Post-Print hal-03509537, HAL.
    7. Slovic, Paul & Finucane, Melissa L. & Peters, Ellen & MacGregor, Donald G., 2007. "The affect heuristic," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 177(3), pages 1333-1352, March.
    8. Berinsky, Adam J., 2017. "Rumors and Health Care Reform: Experiments in Political Misinformation," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 241-262, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fabio Padovano & Pauline Mille, 2022. "Education, fake news and the PBC," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2022-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.

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