Fake News and the Third-Person Effect: They are More Influenced than Me and You

Recent research efforts have been invested into undermining
the effects of digital disinformation, both on a personal and on a societal level. However, because of the complexity of the phenomena, the actual effects of digital disinformation are still under consideration and,
therefore, studies published so far focus on the perceived effects of fake
news. Against this backdrop, relying on Davison’s (1983) third-person
effect (TPE) theory, this study aims at investigating (1) the way people
perceive the effects of fake news and (2) the possible variables predicting
different levels of self-other discrepancy perceptions. Based on data gathered from a national representative survey (N=1107) in Romania, main
results show that people have the tendency to consider that distant others
(i.e., members of the out-group) are more influenced than themselves or
the in-group members (i.e., confirming a strong TPE). With reference to
TPE predictors, gender and fake news frequency of exposure are the most significant variables influencing of the intensity of TPE, in the sense that
(a) women tend to consider that distant others are more influenced by
fake news and (b) the more people perceive they are exposed to fake news,
the greatest the TPE.