In a 2020 survey, Ukrainians who perceived a better stage of battle between Ukraine and Russia had been much less inclined to endorse false, destructive information concerning the European Union, however had been extra prone to endorse false, destructive information about Russia. Honorata Mazepus of Leiden College within the Netherlands and colleagues current these findings within the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 22.
Worldwide geopolitical battle regularly entails the unfold of false details about adversaries by way of digital disinformation campaigns. Nonetheless, a lot stays to be discovered about how such battle impacts individuals’s tendency to consider in and share false information about competing sides.
To raised perceive endorsement of misinformation, Mazepus and colleagues performed a survey of 1,615 adults dwelling in city areas in Ukraine. The survey was performed in 2020, previous to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, however after relations between Russia and Ukraine had already strongly deteriorated, and Russia had been blamed for spreading false information to cut back assist for the European Union. Individuals had been requested to learn pretend, destructive information tales about Russia, the European Union, or, for a impartial comparability, Tanzania, which isn't concerned within the battle.
Evaluation of the survey responses confirmed that contributors who perceived a better stage of battle between Ukraine and Russia had been much less prone to consider in and need to share the false tales concerning the European Union, however had been extra prone to endorse the false tales about Russia. Tales about Tanzania had been least prone to be endorsed.
These findings counsel that folks’s tendency to endorse false information doesn't rely merely on their group id; it additionally depends upon perceptions of the extent of battle between their group and one other group. This means that battle de-escalation might assist stop the unfold of misinformation.
The authors say that this examine is the newest in a rising variety of research that present assist for the idea of motivated reasoning—the concept that individuals are extra prone to endorse info that's consistent with their preexisting beliefs, whereas rejecting info that challenges their beliefs.
The authors add: “The principle discovering of our examine is that folks’s tendency to endorse false information doesn't merely depend upon their group id. Completely different group identities don't must result in hostility. What issues for spreading and believing misinformation about one other group is whether or not we understand them as enemies.”
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