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Fake News and the Third-Person Effect: They are More Influenced than Me and You

  • November 2018
DOI:10.24193/jmr.32.1
Authors:
Oana Ștefăniță at National University of Political Studies and Public Administration
Oana Ștefăniță
Nicoleta Corbu at SNSPA (National University of Political Studies and Public Administration)
Nicoleta Corbu
  • SNSPA (National University of Political Studies and Public Administration)
Raluca Buturoiu at National University of Political Studies and Public Administration
Raluca Buturoiu
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Abstract

Recent research efforts have been invested into undermining the effects of digital disinformation, both on a personal and on a societal level. However, because of the complexity of the phenomena, the actual effects of digital disinformation are still under consideration and, therefore, studies published so far focus on the perceived effects of fake news. Against this backdrop, relying on Davison’s (1983) third-person effect (TPE) theory, this study aims at investigating (1) the way people perceive the effects of fake news and (2) the possible variables predicting different levels of self-other discrepancy perceptions. Based on data gathered from a national representative survey (N=1107) in Romania, main results show that people have the tendency to consider that distant others (i.e., members of the out-group) are more influenced than themselves or the in-group members (i.e., confirming a strong TPE). With reference to TPE predictors, gender and fake news frequency of exposure are the mos significant variables influencing of the intensity of TPE, in the sense that (a) women tend to consider that distant others are more influenced by fake news and (b) the more people perceive they are exposed to fake news, the greatest the TPE. Keywords: Digital disinformation; Fake news; Third-person effect; Predictors of third-person effect.
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DOI:10.24193/jmr.32.1
Published First Online: 2018/11/05
Fake News and the Third-Person Eect:
They are More Inuenced than Me and You
Assistant Professor Oana ȘTEFĂNIȚĂ, PhD
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration,
Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: oana.stefanita@comunicare.ro
Professor Nicoleta CORBU, PhD
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration,
Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: nicoleta.corbu@comunicare.ro
Assistant Professor Raluca BUTUROIU, PhD
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration,
Bucharest, Romania
E-mail: raluca.buturoiu@comunicare.ro
Abstract. Recent research eorts have been invested into undermining
the eects of digital disinformation, both on a personal and on a soci-
etal level. However, because of the complexity of the phenomena, the ac-
tual eects of digital disinformation are still under consideration and,
therefore, studies published so far focus on the perceived eects of fake
news. Against this backdrop, relying on Davison’s (1983) third-person
eect (TPE) theory, this study aims at investigating (1) the way people
perceive the eects of fake news and (2) the possible variables predicting
dierent levels of self-other discrepancy perceptions. Based on data gath-
ered from a national representative survey (N=1107) in Romania, main
results show that people have the tendency to consider that distant others
(i.e., members of the out-group) are more inuenced than themselves or
the in-group members (i.e., conrming a strong TPE). With reference to
TPE predictors, gender and fake news frequency of exposure are the most
Journal of Media Research,
Vol. 11 Issue 3(32) / 2018, pp. 5-23
6
signicant variables inuencing of the intensity of TPE, in the sense that
(a) women tend to consider that distant others are more inuenced by
fake news and (b) the more people perceive they are exposed to fake news,
the greatest the TPE.
Keywords: Digital disinformation; Fake news; Third-person ef-
fect; Predictors of third-person eect.
Introduction
Within the new media ecosystem, widely dominated by media content easily
swinging between satire and parody, fabrication and manipulation, scholars have
been trying to identify the eects of digital disinformation. Although there are
signicant eorts in this respect, the actual eects of digital disinformation are
still dicult to be measured. The diculties consist in the multiple implications
brought by the variety of forms that digital disinformation might take and the
numerous possible causes leading some people to be more inuenced than others.
In this context, some scholars have tried to determine and analyze if and how
people perceive the eects of digital disinformation. Specically, some recent at-
tempts tackle the perceived eects of fake news in the US context (Calvert 2017;
Jang & Kim 2018). Their approach on the perceived eects of fake news is based
on Davison’s (1983) third-person eect (TPE) theory, stating that people tend to
perceive that others (third persons, out-group members) are more inuenced by
dierent media messages than people themselves or in-group members. This self-
other discrepancy in perception might explain further aspects of people’s behavior
(e.g., the support for censorship).
Against this background, this article deals with the perceived eects of digital
disinformation in a Romanian context, being, to our knowledge, the rst aempt
made so far in this direction. Relying on data gathered from a national representa-
tive survey (N=1107) in Romania, this article aims at oering some insights re-
garding the perceived impact of digital disinformation in Romania, representing
a rst step towards explaining further social aitudes and behaviors. Based on the
TPE theory, the article investigates (1) the perceived eects of fake news among
Romanian people and (2) the predictors leading to various levels of TPE. Particu-
larly, we focus on analyzing people’s perceptions about the eects of fake news on
three levels: on the personal level (self-perception about fake news eects), on the
in-group level (perception about fake news eects on close friends and family),
and on the out-group level (perception about fake news eects on distant others).
At the same time, we aim at identifying the main variables predicting people’s
tendency towards considering others to be more inuenced by fake news than
themselves.
... On one hand, we may believe that everyone, including ourselves, is generally gullible (H 4 below). On the other hand, we may believe that other people are more gullible than we are (H 5 below, see also "third-person effect," Jang and Kim, 2018;Ştefăniţă et al., 2018;Yoo et al., 2022), that is, that others are more easily swayed and manipulated than we are (in particular by false information). The third-person effect stems from a general tendency to downplay one's susceptibility to socially undesirable messages (such as fake news) and overstate one's receptivity to socially desirable messages (such as educational content)-likely for self-enhancement and reputation management considerations (Gunther, 1995;Scharrer and Leone, 2008). ...
... 'A new study suggests fake news might have won Donald Trump the 2016 election'; Blake, 2018). The third-person effect is well established regarding the influence of fake news and misinformation (Corbu et al., 2020;Jang and Kim, 2018;Ştefăniţă et al., 2018;Yoo et al., 2022). For instance, a survey from the Pew Research Center (Barthel et al., 2016) has shown that while 88% of Americans reported that fake news has caused confusion about current events, 84% of them reported being very confident or somewhat confident in their ability to identify fake news: H 4 : Perceived danger of misinformation will be negatively associated with confidence that people in general, friends and family, and themselves, are able to identify misinformation. ...
... In line with previous findings in the literature on the third-person effect of misinformation (Corbu et al., 2020;Jang and Kim, 2018;Ştefăniţă et al., 2018;Yoo et al., 2022), we found clear evidence that people think that others, and in particular distant others, are more vulnerable to misinformation than themselves. In our surveys, 77% of participants believed that people in general were more vulnerable to misinformation than themselves, and only 18% believed that they were more vulnerable to misinformation than people in general. ...
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... TPE researchers have examined the audience's effects of the media on self and others (Sherrick, 2016; see also Davison, 1983;Perloff, 2002;Ştefăniţă et al., 2018;Sun et al., 2008; and found two separate components of the theory, which are perceptual and behavioural. ...
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... In particular, many studies have explored the mediating role of social media in the dissemination of disinformative content and the spread of hate speech (Walker, Mercea, and Bastos 2019;Buchanan and Benson 2019). By contrast, except for a few studies of great interest (Ștefăniță, Corbu, and Buturoiu 2018;Pennycook and Rand 2021), the cognitive biases and psycho-sociological behaviours of citizens that lead to fake news being perceived as truthful have been largely ignored by the academic literature. ...
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... were convinced that other people, not themselves or those like them, were more vulnerable to fake news. More specifically, there was strong evidence of the third-person perception (TPP): People claim that others, particularly distant others (Ştefăniţă et al., 2018), would be more likely to be fooled by fake news than they are (Jang & Kim, 2018;Ştefăniţă et al., 2018). Taken together, it seems apparent that the public has been increasingly worried about the prevalence and the harmful impacts of fake news. ...
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