Summary information

Study title

Predictors of likelihood of sharing disinformation on social media 2019-2020

Creator

Buchanan, T, University of Westminster

Study number / PID

854297 (UKDA)

10.5255/UKDA-SN-854297 (DOI)

Data access

Open

Series

Not available

Abstract

This dataset was collected as part of a project evaluating the effect of a number of predictors on the likelihood of individuals onward-sharing of disinformation on social media platforms. Four online experimental studies were performed, with characteristics of the messages being manipulated and characteristics of the individuals being measured. The psychometric measures used were the New Media Literacy Scale (Koc & Barut, 2016), the Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (Everett, 2013), and a Five-Factor personality questionnaire (Buchanan, Johnson, & Goldberg, 2005) derived from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999) that provides indices of Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The methodology of each study is described in the Technical report.Individuals who encounter false information on social media may actively spread it further, by sharing or otherwise engaging with it. Much of the spread of disinformation can thus be attributed to human action. This project explored the effect of message attributes (authoritativeness of source, consensus indicators, consistency with recipient beliefs) and viewer characteristics (digital literacy, personality, and demographic variables) on the self-rated likelihood of spreading disinformation. Four experimental studies were performed (total N=2,634), with characteristics of the messages being manipulated and characteristics of the individuals being measured. The psychometric measures used were the New Media Literacy Scale (Koc & Barut, 2016), the Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (Everett, 2013), and a Five-Factor personality questionnaire (Buchanan, Johnson, & Goldberg, 2005) derived from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999) that provides indices of Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Participants indicated their likelihood of sharing three exemplars of social...
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Methodology

Data collection period

01/04/2019 - 31/03/2020

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Time dimension

Not available

Analysis unit

Individual

Universe

Not available

Sampling procedure

Not available

Kind of data

Numeric
Text

Data collection mode

The data were collected using online questionnaires incorporating experimental manipulations.Data were collected as part of a project evaluating the effect of a number of predictors on the likelihood of individuals’ onward-sharing of disinformation on social media platforms. Four online experimental studies were performed, with characteristics of exemplar disinformation messages being manipulated and characteristics of the individuals being measured. In each study a short questionnaire was used to capture demographic information (gender; country of residence; education; age; occupational status; political orientation expressed as right, left or centre; frequency of Facebook, Twitter or Instagram use). The psychometric measures used were the New Media Literacy Scale (Koc & Barut, 2016), the Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (Everett, 2013), and a Five-Factor personality questionnaire (Buchanan, Johnson, & Goldberg, 2005) derived from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999) that provides indices of Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness.

Funding information

Grant number

ES/N009614/1

Access

Publisher

UK Data Service

Publication year

2020

Terms of data access

The Data Collection is available to any user without the requirement for registration for download/access.

Related publications

Not available