Is Sensationalist Disinformation More Effective? Three Facilitating Factors at the National, Individual, and Situational Level

Throughout the current global health crisis, false and misleading content has proliferated on social media. Previous research indicates that users of media primarily share information contains attention-grabbing elements. Because sensationalist elements are prevalent in disinformation, this study examines role sensationalism supporting disinformation. We conducted survey experiments six countries (N = 7,009), presenting versions a claim differed their degree sensationalism. varied three contextual conditions for disinformation support: whether respondents grew up tabloid-oriented national news culture, they indicated individual usage preferences tabloid alternative media, how rated situational uncertainty during pandemic. Our results show weak influence tabloidized cultures, but people who frequently use or more likely to agree with Users uncertain about what is true also especially when it presented sensationally. The average user, however, neutrally. This finding concerning, as sober manner much harder detect by those want fight “infodemic.”