Dark personality traits make people susceptible to fake news

These are the findings of a new study as to why people believe theories unsupported by evidence.

What the researchers say: "Some people believe Fake News even when the scientific facts clearly contradict them," said the lead author. "We wanted to know why this is the case and investigate the role played by our ideas about the nature of knowledge and facts."

The researchers confronted more than 600 individuals from the USA with various short headlines – such as " Trump’s first 3 years created 1.5 million fewer jobs than Obama’s last 3." Participants were asked to assess the accuracy of these statements.

Afterwards, they filled out a comprehensive questionnaire. Among other things, the participants were asked to indicate how much they trust their gut feeling when evaluating the accuracy of information, how important solid evidence is to them and how much they assume that politics, science and the media "fabricate" facts according to their interests.

"We summarize these aspects as 'epistemic beliefs'," the author explains – epistéme comes from the Greek and means "cognition" or "knowledge".

In addition, the questionnaire assessed how important it was for the participants to assert their own interests (even at the expense of their fellow human beings). This characteristic is also called the "dark factor of personality". It is considered the core of various dark personality traits such as narcissism, psychopathy or Machiavellianism. "Everyone is selfish to a certain degree," he explains. "However, it is problematic when people focus on their own well-being so strongly that the interests of their fellow human beings no longer play any role."

The study showed that the less the participants believed in the existence of facts, the more difficult it was for them to distinguish true statements from false ones. In addition, there was a second finding: the stronger the "dark factor of personality" of the participants was, i.e. the more pronounced their self-interest at the expense of others, the more they doubted that there was a difference between scientific findings and mere opinions.

"You could call their beliefs post-factual; they only believe what feels true to them," the researchers emphasize. “Accordingly, they find it difficult to distinguish true statements from false ones, so they particularly often believe fake news to be true. "People with dark personality traits bend reality to their own liking. For example: I don't wear a mask because the coronavirus was just invented by the media anyways. Bending the facts based on selfish motives works especially well when people are convinced that there are no independent scientific facts anyway.”

In another study published earlier this year the researchers were able to show that people with dark personality traits were more likely to endorse COVID-19 conspiracy theories during the pandemic.

They emphasize, however, that it is by no means only this group that is susceptible to conspiracy theories and fake news. "Epistemic beliefs are the decisive factor," they said. "People who don't believe in the power of sound evidence and arguments won't be swayed by even the most impressive fact-checking – regardless of their other personality traits."

In psychology, epistemic beliefs are thought to develop and solidify during childhood and adolescence. For young children, there is only black or white on many issues: an idea is good or bad, a proposition true or false. Later they learn to differentiate: Whether someone likes Beethoven or is into pop songs is a matter of taste. During this time, they tend to see different opinions as equal – even those on matters such as climate change being caused by humans.

"In the best case, at some point we learn to evaluate different positions," the lead author said. "For example: yes, there are different opinions, but some more backed by evidence than others." But not everyone seems to take this step. In situations like climate change or COVID-19, where a rational assessment of arguments is crucial, this deficit can have serious consequences.

So, what? This is an important study which helps to explain the acceptance of conspiracy theories by such a wide range of people. Fortunately, most of them running in the recent mid-terms lost!