Analysis of the Relationship between Authenticity Identification and Sharing Behaviors Regarding Misinformation and Individual Characteristics and Literacy

Abstract

In recent years, the social impact of misinformation has intensified. This study analyzes the relationships between authenticity identification and sharing behaviors regarding misinformation in various fields and individual characteristics and literacy. Data were obtained using an online questionnaire survey comprising nine actual pieces of fact-checked misinformation related to eight fields. The results of our multinomial logit model analysis showed that individuals with low media literacy, low news literacy, low digital literacy, older age, short internet usage history, short time reading online news, short time using messaging apps, and short time reading newspapers tended to be unaware of misinformation but also tended not to spread it. Furthermore, individuals with high media literacy, low news literacy, low digital literacy, low information literacy, high self-esteem, of the female gender, short internet usage history, long time spent on social media, long time reading online news, and short time reading newspapers were also tended to spread misinformation without being aware that it is misinformation. The results suggest that the government should focus on improving news literacy and digital literacy and that increasing self-esteem of media literacy increases the risk of sharing misinformation. Further, it is important to provide literacy education to people of all ages.

Keywords: misinformation, disinformation, media literacy, news literacy, information literacy, digital literacy social media