SINGAPORE – People who say they are tired or overwhelmed by social media are more likely to believe and share false information online, and those who are “narcissistic” are more likely to do so.
These findings were published by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in the scientific journal Scientific Reports in September.
The study surveyed more than 8,000 people in eight countries: Singapore, the United States, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
“Social media fatigue causes information overload and impedes social media users’ cognitive judgment,” said Saifuddin Ahmed, assistant professor at NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Studies.
He co-led the research with Muhammad Ehab Rasul, a doctoral student at the University of California, Davis.
In such situations, individuals can become overwhelmed and have a hard time critically evaluating the misinformation they encounter, whether it’s about COVID-19 or other topics, Saifuddin said. added. The study used fake news about the coronavirus pandemic as an example of misinformation.
Professor Saifuddin pointed to social media platforms’ algorithms that prioritize controversial, sensational and emotional content as another explanation for social media fatigue.
“(Thus) repeated exposure to such content may lead individuals to perceive it as accurate,” he said.
Research method
The survey was conducted in June 2022 and received 8,070 responses. 1,008 were from Singapore.
Survey participants first asked how much they agreed with five statements about social media use, including whether they felt mentally exhausted by social media use and whether they felt too tired to do other tasks. The degree of social media fatigue was evaluated by rating.
Participants were then asked to rate the accuracy of a series of false claims about COVID-19 presented in a mock social media post style, as well as their likelihood of sharing these claims.
One such post read, “Coconut is effective in reducing symptoms of COVID-19,” while another read, “COVID-19 vaccination is dangerous and Omicron variant “has no effect,” it said.
Cognitive skills determine an individual’s ability to critically analyze information.
Participants had their cognitive abilities assessed through a 10-item vocabulary test that is strongly related to measures of general intelligence. According to NTU, it is frequently used in scientific research as a proxy for measuring intelligence.