The Role of Mental Representation in Sharing Misinformation Online

Fuzzy-Trace Theory (FTT) posits that people share misinformation online if it promotes gist mental representations cuing motivationally-relevant values. Most people value the truth. Thus, per FTT, people decide to share messages that they perceive as true. FTT also predicts that messages will be more effective if they communicate a simple gist. We test these predictions by examining the roles of mental representation and epistemic quality in decisions to share misinformative articles on Facebook across two experiments and two correlational studies. In studies 1 and 2, we use Facebook data to test the hypothesis that gist proxies in text are associated with online sharing. In study 3, we experimentally manipulate subjects’ exposure to a gist-based intervention that explains why a misinformative article is false, a simple debunk stating only that the article is false (but not explaining why) and a verbatim condition providing relevant detailed information but allowing subjects to draw their own conclusions. We found that the gist condition decreased intentions to share misinformation. Finally, in study 4, we replicated this finding, and show that the gist condition also reduces misinformation endorsement. Results provide support for FTT’s predictions regarding reducing sharing and endorsement of misinformation on social media.