ABSTRACT

The politicized public discourse on online ‘fake news’ today has contributed to the rise in scholarly interest on blame attribution for this fake news problem, particularly when the attribution is directed at an outgroup. A study comprising of 284 young adults (selected for their heavy reliance on digital social networks for their news consumption) sought to ascertain the impact of partisan strength on this outgroup blame attribution effect, as well as identify potential cognitive factors that explain this effect. A path analysis confirmed the relationship between partisan strength and outgroup blame attribution, and suggests that perceived self vs. outgroup differences in the ability to spot fake news acts as a small but significant partial mediator in this relationship. Self-enhancing bias, or the need to protect self-esteem, is suggested as a motivator for this mediating relationship.

摘要

当今关于在线“假新闻”的政治化公共话语促使学术界对这一假新闻问题的归因兴趣上升，尤其是当归因针对外部群体时。一项由 284 名年轻人（因其新闻消费严重依赖数字社交网络而被选中）组成的研究试图确定党派力量对这种外群责备归因效应的影响，并确定解释这种效应的潜在认知因素。路径分析证实了党派力量与外群体责备归因之间的关系，并表明感知到的自我与外群体在发现假新闻的能力上的差异在这种关系中起到了很小但很重要的部分调解作用。自我增强的偏见，或保护自尊的需要，