Effect of Conformity on Perceived Trustworthiness of News in Social Media

A catalyst for the spread of fake news is existence comments that users make in support of, or against, such articles. In this article, we investigate whether critical and supportive can induce conformity how readers perceive trustworthiness articles respond to them. We find individuals tend conform majority's opinion an article's (58%), especially when challenged by larger majorities who are credibility, less confident about their personal judgment. Moreover, more inclined take action: report they as fake, comment on share real. conclude with a discussion implications our findings mitigating dispersion social media.