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Wired to seek, comment and share? Examining the relationship between personality, news consumption and misinformation engagement

Xizhu Xiao (School of Literature, Journalism and Communication, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China)
Yan Su (School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, Beijing, China)

Online Information Review

ISSN: 1468-4527

Article publication date: 10 January 2022

Issue publication date: 26 September 2022

626

Abstract

Purpose

News consumption is critical in creating informed citizenry; however, in the current context of media convergence, news consumption becomes more complex as social media becomes a primary news source rather than news media. The current study seeks to answer three questions: why the shifted pattern of news seeking only happens to some but not all of the news consumers; whether the differentiated patterns of news seeking (news media vs social media) would result in different misinformation engagement behaviors; and whether misperceptions would moderate the relationship between news consumption and misinformation engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey consisted of questions related to personality traits, news seeking, misperceptions and misinformation engagement was distributed to 551 individuals. Multiple standard regression and PROCESS Macro model 1 were used to examine the intricate relationships between personality, news use and misinformation engagement.

Findings

Results indicate that extroversion was positively associated with social media news consumption while openness was inversely related to it. Social media news consumption in turn positively predicted greater misinformation sharing and commenting. No association was found between Big Five personality traits and news media news seeking. News media news seeking predicted higher intention to reply to misinformation. Both relationships were further moderated by misperceptions that individuals with greater misperceptions were more likely to engage with misinformation.

Originality/value

The current study integrates personality traits, news consumption and misperceptions in understanding misinformation engagement behaviors. Findings suggest that news consumption via news media in the digital era merits in-depth examinations as it may associate with more complex background factors and also incur misinformation engagement. Social media news consumption deserves continuous scholarly attention. Specifically, extra attention should be devoted to extrovert and pragmatic individuals in future research and interventions. People with these characteristics are more prone to consume news on social media and at greater risk of falling prey to misinformation and becoming a driving force for misinformation distribution.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-10-2021-0520

Keywords

Citation

Xiao, X. and Su, Y. (2022), "Wired to seek, comment and share? Examining the relationship between personality, news consumption and misinformation engagement", Online Information Review, Vol. 46 No. 6, pp. 1152-1166. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-10-2021-0520

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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