Category: Deception

Conforming to the Spread of Disinformation

by Jasmine Lunceford

misinformation sign

With mass amounts of information at our fingertips, how do we as individuals determine what is worth sharing, interacting with, or what is real in our social media worlds? 

The urge as humans for social acceptance leads us to create rewarding relationships that provide approval and a growth in self- confidence. Socially this is referred to as conformity, which influences decision making, values, and memories through the actions of others. Conformity impacts desire to precisely understand reality or to simply gain that social approval.  

On the other hand, our self-concept can be broken down into how we differentiate individually from others and connect as a group with others. As humans we grow our self-concept through authenticity in actions, words, and principles. This self-expression can be seen through consumerism or general conduct with others online. 

Colliander hypothesized that in social media, conformity and self-concept played a role on communication and spreading of disinformation. In theory, exposure to fake news would result in a negative response and reduce sharing when others comments were critical rather than supportive. He conducted two separate studies to investigate these issues further. Colliander’s first study divided Facebook comments on fake news posts into supportive, negative, and comments criticizing the poster. (a few months later)The second study utilized supportive comments, disclaimers that the content was fake, and supportive comments with the disclaimer of fake news. Participants were university students who after exposure to the content were asked to complete a series of survey questions on a Likert Scale. Questions included: 

  • Likelihood to share post. 
  • Likelihood to make positive or negative comments. 
  • My impression of the Facebook post was favorable. 

The results indicated that people were more likely to conform to the negative behavior than the supportive and share the fake news. There was no great effect on those who stated it was fake and those who were shamed. The second round of research concluded that disclaimers by authorities were not as effective as the comments from peers to stop online disinformation. When a disclaimer was present the likelihood of sharing content was significantly lower in posts with negative comments than positive comments. Posts with negative comments increased the likelihood of users posting negatively themselves, this exceeded the expected outcome.  

Colliander concluded that conformity plays a large role in the validation of fake news and the sharing of fake news stories among social communities. An online space if fueled by consumerist tendencies. Conformity in itself is a factor that makes up an online space and affects how we respond to online information. Individuals with strong self-concept are less likely to aid in the spread and communication with disinformation. Colliander suggests further studies to analyze how user frequency with social media as well as socio-economic beliefs can hinder or aid the spread of disinformation. The stronger our self concept, the less likely we will be subject to disinformation through conformity.  

Colliander, J. (2019). “This is fake news”: Investigating the role of conformity to other users’ views when commenting on and spreading disinformation in social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 97, 202-215. doi:http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu:2099/10.1016/j.chb.2019.03.032  

Deception in online dating

By Guest Writer Christina Arnold

Manti Te'o on sideline
Manti Te’o

On the internet, it’s easy to create an online persona that radically differs from your offline self.  When it comes to online dating, it seems even more likely that people will be deceptive about their true selves in an effort to get a date.  But are there certain attributes that make it likely that someone will exaggerate about themselves?  And how much will someone lie to score a date?

In the article “Strategic misrepresentation in online dating: The effects of gender, self-monitoring, and personality traits”, researchers examined what factors make it more likely that a person will misrepresent themselves to a potential online date.

The user of an online dating service is able to customize their profile to exactly how they want it, which may make it more likely that they  will misrepresent themselves to appear better to a potential suitor—especially because of the high amount of competition that can be found on these sites.  However, since online dating sites usually encourage face-to-face meetings early on, most users are discouraged from any blatant deception about themselves.  The anticipation of a face-to-face meeting, along with the knowledge that your profile can be saved or printed out and looked at later, helps to stop any obvious misrepresentation since it would easily (and quickly) be found out.  Because of this, any misrepresentation is usually small, and is usually explained away by the user as their desirable (and potential) ‘future self’ (for example, their ‘future self’ may be thinner or more fit than their current self).

The authors looked to evidence in Evolutionary Psychology to create hypotheses that could help predict what could lead to deception in online dating.  Evolutionary Psychology suggests that women are more likely to look for men that have more resources and are committed for the long-term.  Both of these traits show that the man is willing and able to take care of any future offspring in the long-term.  Men, on the other hand, look for women who show signs of fertility (e.g., whether they’re young and healthy).

From the surveys, the authors found that men were more inclined to lie about their personal assets (i.e., resources), personal interests, and personal attributes than women were.  Women, on average, misrepresented their weight to a higher degree while men were more likely to lie about their age (it’s safe to say that the older a man is, the more likely he is to be more financially stable and have more resources).  However, older women  tended to misrepresent their age more—which goes back, again, to the Evolutionary Psychology theory that men look for signs of fertility (like youth).  Men were also more likely to lie about characteristics that signaled they were interested in long-term relationships.

The authors also discussed the “Big 5 personality traits” that might help predict deception—neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness.  They found that extroverts lied about past relationships more (because they were more likely to have a variety of sexual encounters), but misrepresented their personal interests less.  People low in conscientiousness misrepresented more because they didn’t have a strong concern for future consequences, and those who were less open to new experiences were more likely to misrepresent themselves to look like they were more interesting.

So while, yes, there is a likelihood that a person will lie about themselves to some degree on a site, I don’t think it should turn anyone away from online dating.  Any lies that you’re told can usually be discovered upon your first face-to-face meeting with this person.

Hall, Jeffrey A., Namkee Park, Hayeon Song, and Michael J. Cody (2010). “Strategic Misrepresentation in Online Dating: The Effects of Gender, Self-monitoring, and Personality Traits.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 27,: 117-35.