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Lying for viewers : co-mingled partisan falsehoods increase viewing and sharing of news media
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Seol, Seyoung, Mejia, J. and Dennis, A. R. (2023) Lying for viewers : co-mingled partisan falsehoods increase viewing and sharing of news media. MIS Quarterly . doi:10.25300/MISQ/2023/17928 ISSN 2162-9730. (In Press)
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2023/17928
Abstract
Is there an economic incentive for celebrities and well-known media firms to co-mingle falsehoods into news stories? We conducted five experiments, plus a field validation using secondary data. When presented by celebrities and well-known media firms, a co-mingled partisan falsehood in an otherwise true news story significantly increased viewing and sharing intentions among politically aligned viewers. The effect was weaker but significant when we replaced the celebrity with an unknown speaker and disappeared when both the celebrity and the well-known firm were replaced by unknowns. This effect was explained by confirmation bias and the viewer’s belief that the falsehood was true. In contrast, a false news story focusing on the same falsehood increased viewing and sharing intentions only when presented by unknowns, with a limited role of viewers’ belief. The field study found a significantly positive relationship between a co-mingled partisan falsehood in videos of well-known media firms and actual viewership. We conclude that co-mingled partisan falsehoods provide a significant viewership increase to celebrities and well-known media firms, creating an economic incentive for lying and posing complex challenges in the fake news era. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in this area for policymakers and media firms.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | MIS Quarterly | ||||||||
Publisher: | M I S Research Center | ||||||||
ISSN: | 2162-9730 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 2023 | ||||||||
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DOI: | 10.25300/MISQ/2023/17928 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | In Press | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
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