Why Do We Buy Fake News?

These days we live an epidemic of false news or half truths (half news). Disinformation is the order of the day and one no longer knows which news to believe and which not to believe. But the reason is not that people want to read false information and that is why the demand has increased. People want true information, especially if it matches their beliefs. Even so, the consumption of fake news has increased a lot.

To understand this phenomenon we have to go to the psychology of motivation. In addition to having the conscious desire to obtain information that is true,  we have other unconscious motivations that lead us to try (at least) to confirm our beliefs. In this way, messages that satisfy these motivations will be accepted as true, even when they are false (the reverse can also happen).

Need for cognitive closure

One of the motivations we were talking about is the need for cognitive closure, which is related to uncertainty. When this need is activated, people are drawn to messages that are simplistic and affirm absolute truths. As if that were not enough, we all have this need to a greater or lesser degree and, even situations that involve disorder and generate uncertainty can increase the need for closure.

An example of a simplistic message is provided by the news that affirms that immigrants are responsible for all the social problems we have. This message is simplistic as it divides the world into good and bad, we are the good guys and the immigrants are the bad guys. It also provides a “scapegoat” for our problems, giving us a cause or, rather, a cause. That being the case, simplistic messages are more likely to be believed and accepted without much scrutiny.

Need for specific results

Similarly, messages that claim a specific result, whether true or false, can be easily accepted if they are consistent with what people want to believe. However, we are not going to believe anything just because we think in a similar way.

When fake news is too outlandish, such as that Barak Obama was a member of the Ku Kux Klan, and contradicts what we know or what we think is reasonable, it is more likely to be rejected, even if this fake news can satisfy our motivation of specific results.

Despite what is seen, a lack of knowledge can make even the most outlandish news to be accepted as true. Various studies have shown that older and more educated people (related to greater experience) are less vulnerable to fake news. This is because they have more resources in terms of critical capacity when it comes to qualifying a news story as true or false.

Fake news experts

In these cases where lack of knowledge predominates, what we usually do is trust people we consider to be experts. When your car breaks down, you call a trusted mechanic; when you get sick, you visit the doctor you trust.

In the past, for most informational matters about society, politics, and the world, one turned to respectable social institutions, such as a government agency, a representative of Congress, the president, or mass media sources, such as El País or The world. In those days, the government and the media enjoyed control over reliability, and it was widely trusted.

But those times have changed, and neither the government nor the media enjoy the trust they once did. The recent crisis and cases of corruption have contributed to our trust in them less and less. Faced with this lack of trust in the “usual” media, people have sought other information media that satisfy the motivation for closure and that of specific results.

Fake news intoxication

Advances in the internet and the rise of social media have also contributed to a lack of trust in experts and the rise of fake news. The moment of confusion we are living in, characterized by rapid changes and growing turmoil (for example, the rise of Asian powers such as China and India, Islamist terrorism, economic instability, the refugee crisis, etc.), has led us to need information updated. We want to find out at the minute what is happening.

This demand, together with the vacuum created by mistrust of traditional sources of information, has opened a door to new sources of news, particularly on the internet and through social networks. These new sources, over which there is little or no control, and which are sometimes motivated or tempted to change people’s political views in the desired direction, in other words, manipulate.

Whatever the remedy, the current plague of misinformation is cause for concern, requiring and justifying an effort by social institutions to restore its tarnished credibility.