The Internal and Extrinsic Determinants Predicting Fake News Dissemination Among Social Media Users: The Moderating Influence of Fake News Awareness.

Abstract

Fake news is becoming more and more investigated, but little is known about the relative effects of various elements on the spread of false news and how to stop it. This research addresses user motivation and the online environment as extrinsic and intrinsic elements, respectively, to bridge this gap. It also looks at the impact that knowledge of fake news plays in halting the spread of fake content. This study uses partial least square (PLS) to describe the outcomes of an Indian sample (N=450) in order to ascertain the effects of “extrinsic factors (trust in network, homophily, norm of reciprocity, and tie strength)” and intrinsic factors (altruism, information sharing, socialisation, and status-seeking) on the spread of fake news. In contrast to other studies, I approached the two primary components as higher-order entities. This research showed that among Indian social media users, the attraction of the online environment was more important in influencing the spread of bogus news than user motivation. Researcher also discovered that reduced sharing of fake news was correlated with greater knowledge of fake news. This finding highlights the value of raising awareness about fake news as an intervention tactic to stop its spread. Further studies are required to expand on our results and evaluate them in cross-cultural contexts. Time series analysis will also be used to understand better the impact of growing knowledge of fake news over time.