The relation between authoritarian leadership and belief in fake news.

ABSTRACT: Individual factors such as cognitive capacities matter when one is requested to spot fake news. We suggest, however, that social influence-specifically as exercised by an authoritarian leader-might matter more if one is expected to agree with the fake news. We developed a single-item prototype measure of leadership styles and recruited participants from four Western democratic countries (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, N = 501) who identified their immediate boss as an autonomous, paternalistic, or authoritarian leader. Then they were asked to evaluate the accuracy of several fake news articles and their expectations to agree with their boss when asked about these articles. People with authoritarian bosses were less accurate in spotting fake news (Cohen's d = 0.32) compar

SUBMITTER: Ospina J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10409744 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature