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Title
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Inside misinformation : how individuals engage with online misinformation
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Author
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Abstract
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| Events like the attack on the capitol on January 6th 2021 and the waging Russian war against Ukraine, have shown us that the belief in misinformation can have extremely harmful real-life consequences. This has inspired the investigation into the driving forces behind the spread of misinformation on the individual level. How is it possible that these “unbelievable” events are unfolding, and why are people supporting or believing clearly false and misleading information? What happens when individuals are exposed to such harmful content, and who would further spread it, helping to expose even more people to it? This dissertation takes an interest in the online dissemination of misinformation on the microlevel. It is crucial to investigate the microlevel because ordinary citizens are able to mitigate or accelerate the spread of false and misleading information. Psychologically, the question of why individuals believe false information to be true and therefore share it within their online network has given some scholarly attention. However, much about the exposure to online misinformation and its consequences has hardly been explored. For instance, the different motivations behind the spread of online misinformation, such as agreement with the message or entertainment reasons, have only recently sparked the interest of the scientific community. This dissertation adds to filling this gap. In addition, it is important to provide more insight in the individuals who spread online misinformation. Even though research has singularly looked at sociodemographics or political orientation, this dissertation combines approaches from different disciplines to investigate a broader range of variables, including psychological factors such as personality traits. Hence, understanding who and why individuals would spread online misinformation, can be useful to combat the dissemination of misinformation. |
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Language
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English
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Publication
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Antwerp
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University of Antwerp, Faculty of Social Science, Department of Political Science
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2023
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Volume/pages
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178 p.
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Note
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:
Van Aelst, Peter [Supervisor]
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Full text (open access)
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