The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
2.1. The Left–Right Political Scale
2.2. Portuguese Case
3. Methods
3.1. Procedure
3.1.1. Measuring the Ability to Distinguish Fake News
3.1.2. Identification of the Electorate in the Left–Right Political Dimension
3.2. Participants
3.3. Statistical Analysis
4. Results
4.1. Relation between Belief in (Fake) News and Political Ideology
4.2. Relation between Willingness to Share (Fake) News and Political Ideology
4.3. Demographic Factors and Belief in (Fake) News
4.4. Association between Willingness to Share and Belief in (Fake) News
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Moral and religious values | God’s Importance in Life | 1—Nothing important 10—Very important |
Abortion Euthanasia Suicide Prostitution Smoking marijuana or hashish Artificial insemination Extramarital relations Intercourse with occasional partners | 1—Always 10—Never | |
Socio-economic values | Equalization of income | 1—Wages should be equal as possible 10—There should be incentives to reward individual effort |
State intervention (I) | 1—The state should control companies 10—The state should give more freedom to companies | |
State intervention (II) | 1—The state should be primarily responsible for ensuring the survival of all 10—People should be primarily responsible for ensuring their survival | |
State intervention (II) | 1—The property of the state in business and industry should increase 10—Private property in industry and business should increase | |
Social values | Homosexuality | 1–Always 10–Never |
Immigration (libertarian vs. authoritarian orientations) (I) | 1—Immigrants do not take jobs from people in the countries where they go 10—Immigrants take jobs from people in the countries where they go | |
Immigration (libertarian vs. authoritarian orientations) (II) | 1—Immigrants do not impoverish the cultural life of the country they are going to 10—Immigrants impoverish the cultural life of the country they are going to | |
Immigration (libertarian vs. authoritarian orientations) (III) | 1—It is better for the good of society that immigrants maintain their customs and traditions 10—It is better, for the good of society, that immigrants do not maintain their customs and traditions, but that they adopt the customs of the country | |
Death Penalty | 1—Always 10—Never | |
Unemployed | 1—The unemployed should have the right to refuse the job they do not want 10—The unemployed should accept any job or lose the unemployment benefit | |
Self-placement on the Left–Right political spectrum | 1—Left wing 10—Right wing |
Item | Left Wing M ± SD | Center M ± SD | Right Wing M ± SD | F | p |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
RNR | 2.44 ± 0.66 | 2.60 ± 0.74 | 2.86 ± 0.79 | 18.522 | <0.001 |
RNL | 2.50 ± 0.71 | 2.45 ± 0.67 | 2.45 ± 0.65 | 0.639 | 0.528 |
FNR | 1.50 ± 0.59 | 1.79 ± 0.72 | 2.01 ± 0.71 | 36.021 | <0.001 |
FNL | 1.99 ± 0.73 | 2.09 ± 0.74 | 2.22 ± 0.75 | 5.699 | 0.004 |
Variables | Min. | Max. | M | SD | Sk | Ku |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FNL | 1.00 | 4.40 | 2.07 | 0.75 | 0.337 | −0.44 |
FNR | 1.00 | 4.40 | 1.70 | 0.70 | 1.075 | 0.74 |
RNL | 1.00 | 5.00 | 2.60 | 0.74 | 0.585 | 0.39 |
RNR | 1.00 | 4.80 | 2.48 | 0.69 | 0.660 | 0.24 |
SFNL | 1.00 | 4.00 | 1.40 | 0.55 | 1.44 | 1.47 |
SFNR | 1.00 | 4.00 | 1.30 | 0.48 | 2.01 | 4.22 |
SRNL | 1.00 | 4.00 | 1.53 | 0.63 | 1.16 | 0.79 |
SRNR | 1.00 | 4.00 | 1.52 | 0.63 | 1.32 | 1.52 |
Variables | RNR | RNL | FNL | FNR |
---|---|---|---|---|
SFNL | 0.262 ** | 0.377 ** | 0.558 ** | 0.362 ** |
SFNR | 0.390 ** | 0.295 ** | 0.366 ** | 0.628 ** |
SRNL | 0.273 ** | 0.496 ** | 0.307 ** | 0.232 ** |
SRNR | 0.489 ** | 0.284 ** | 0.212 ** | 0.361 ** |
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Baptista, J.P.; Correia, E.; Gradim, A.; Piñeiro-Naval, V. The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case. Publications 2021, 9, 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9020023
Baptista JP, Correia E, Gradim A, Piñeiro-Naval V. The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case. Publications. 2021; 9(2):23. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9020023
Chicago/Turabian StyleBaptista, João Pedro, Elisete Correia, Anabela Gradim, and Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval. 2021. "The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case" Publications 9, no. 2: 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9020023
APA StyleBaptista, J. P., Correia, E., Gradim, A., & Piñeiro-Naval, V. (2021). The Influence of Political Ideology on Fake News Belief: The Portuguese Case. Publications, 9(2), 23. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9020023