Practices and Awareness of Disinformation for a Sustainable Education in European Secondary Education
Abstract
1. Introduction
- H0 = There are no statistically significant differences between both independent samples (p > 0.05).
- H1 = There are statistically significant differences between both independent samples (p < 0.05).
2. State of Affairs
2.1. Disinformation and Fake News
2.2. Minors and Social Media
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results
4.1. Perceptions of Disinformation in Terms of Creation, Associations, and Distribution
4.2. Feelings Towards Disinformation: Self-Impact, Ability to Recognize, Self-Creation, and Sharing
4.3. Knowledge and Management Perceived Regarding Fake News, Disinformation, and Related Terms
5. Discussion and Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Construct | Variable | Items from Questionnaire | Responses | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Perceptions | V1: Creation | Why do you think fake news or disinformation is created? | |||||||
- By mistake - By malicious intent - Out of boredom | - For fun - For political interests - For economic interests | 1 = Never 2 = Rarely 3 = Sometimes | 4 = Often 5 = Always | ||||||
V2: Association | What would you associate fake news with? | ||||||||
- Humour/Entertainment - Information - Distrust | - Manipulation - Gaining popularity | 1 = Never 2 = Rarely 3 = Sometimes | 4 = Often 5 = Always | ||||||
V3: Distribution | To what extent do you think fake news and/or disinformation is distributed through: | ||||||||
– TV, press, radio – X (Twitter) – TikTok | – WhatsApp – YouTube – Telegram – BeReal | – Twitch – Discord – Snapchat | 0 = I do not use it 1 = Never 2 = Once | 3 = Sometimes 4 = Often 5 = Always | |||||
Feelings and practice | V4: Impact in own life | Do you think that fake news and disinformation have a negative impact on your daily life? | 1 = Very unlikely 2 = Unlikely 3 = Neutral | 4 = Likely 5 = Very likely | |||||
V5: Ability to recognize fake news | How would you rate your ability to spot or recognize fake news and disinformation? | 1 = I cannot recognize them 2 = I rarely recognize them 3 = Sometimes I recognize them 4 = I often recognize them 5 = I always recognize them | |||||||
V6: Self creation | Have you ever created fake news to share? | 1 = Never 2 = Once 3 = Sometimes | 4 = Often 5 = Always | ||||||
V7: Sharing | Have you ever shared a fake news story knowing it was fake? | 1 = Never 2 = May be, not conscious | 3 = Sometimes 4 = Often 5 = Always | ||||||
Knowledge and management | V8: Knowledge | Do you know what fake news and disinformation is? | Yes/No | ||||||
V9: Fact-checking use | Do you tend to fact-check information shared by friends or family on social media? | 1 = No 2 = Rarely 3 = Sometimes | 4 = Often 5 = Always | ||||||
V10: Information verification | Do you verify information from multiple sources before believing or sharing it? | 1 = No 2 = Rarely 3 = Sometimes | 4 = Often 5 = Always | ||||||
V11: Management | Do you use strategies or tools to confirm what comes to you? | Yes/No | |||||||
V12: Recognition | Do you recognize the meaning of any of these words? | ||||||||
- Fake new - Disinformation - Clickbaiting - Hoax | - Infoxication - Post-truth - Bot - Infodemic | - Polarization - Fact-checkers - Deep Fake | Yes/No |
Why Do you Think Fake News or Disinformation is Created? | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Never | Rarely | Sometimes | Often | Always | z | p ** | ||
By mistake | G1 * | 34.1% | 39.9% | 19.1% | 5.3% | 1.7% | 2.236 | 0.025 |
G2 | 27.1% | 38.6% | 26.5% | 7.2% | 0.6% | |||
By malicious intent | G1 | 4.6% | 10.6% | 27.5% | 42% | 15.3% | 4.126 | <0.001 |
G2 | 0% | 4.8% | 24.1% | 49.4% | 21.7% | |||
Out of boredom | G1 | 9.6% | 17.5% | 31.5% | 32% | 9.4% | −1.935 | 0.053 |
G2 | 12% | 16.9% | 36.7% | 30.1% | 4.2% | |||
For fun | G1 | 7.6% | 13.7% | 32.5% | 34.7% | 11.6% | −1.545 | 0.122 |
G2 | 4.8% | 13.3% | 43.4% | 36.7% | 1.8% | |||
For political interests | G1 | 6.4% | 12.1% | 25.4% | 37.1% | 19% | 5.886 | <0.001 |
G2 | 0.6% | 2.4% | 17.5% | 50.6% | 28.9% | |||
For economic interests | G1 | 5.8% | 13.7% | 29.1% | 33.2% | 18.1% | 6.201 | <0.001 |
G2 | 1.2% | 1.8% | 19.9% | 50% | 27.1% |
What Would You Associate Fake News with? | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Never | Rarely | Sometimes | Often | Always | z | p ** | ||
Humor/Entertainment | G1 * | 32% | 24% | 26.7% | 12.1% | 5.2% | −1.257 | 0.209 |
G2 | 38.6% | 16.9% | 34.3% | 7.8% | 2.4% | |||
Information | G1 | 25.5% | 23.7% | 25% | 16.9% | 8.9% | −0.262 | 0.793 |
G2 | 37.3% | 11.4% | 16.3% | 22.3% | 12.7% | |||
Distrust | G1 | 14% | 13.7% | 27.8% | 26.1% | 18.5% | 3.070 | 0.002 |
G2 | 10.8% | 6% | 26.5% | 32.5% | 24.1% | |||
Manipulation | G1 | 9.1% | 9.9% | 19.7% | 30.1% | 31.1% | 6.622 | <0.001 |
G2 | 2.4% | 0.6% | 15.1% | 28.3% | 53.6% | |||
Gaining popularity | G1 | 11.2% | 9.1% | 21.9% | 29.0% | 28.8% | 1.820 | 0.069 |
G2 | 6.6% | 2.4% | 21.1% | 44.6% | 25.3% |
Never | Rarely | Sometimes | Often | Always | z | p ** | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fact-checking practice | G1 * | 18.1% | 32.4% | 30.9% | 14.4% | 3.5% | −7.845 | <0.001 |
G2 | 4.8% | 17.5% | 39.8% | 31.9% | 6.0% | |||
Information verification | G1 | 14.8% | 25.1% | 38.3% | 14.4% | 7.3% | −7.841 | <0.001 |
G2 | 6.6% | 12.7% | 30.1% | 22.3% | 28.3% |
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Pérez-Escoda, A.; Carabias-Herrero, M. Practices and Awareness of Disinformation for a Sustainable Education in European Secondary Education. Sustainability 2025, 17, 6923. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17156923
Pérez-Escoda A, Carabias-Herrero M. Practices and Awareness of Disinformation for a Sustainable Education in European Secondary Education. Sustainability. 2025; 17(15):6923. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17156923
Chicago/Turabian StylePérez-Escoda, Ana, and Manuel Carabias-Herrero. 2025. "Practices and Awareness of Disinformation for a Sustainable Education in European Secondary Education" Sustainability 17, no. 15: 6923. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17156923
APA StylePérez-Escoda, A., & Carabias-Herrero, M. (2025). Practices and Awareness of Disinformation for a Sustainable Education in European Secondary Education. Sustainability, 17(15), 6923. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17156923