“This is fake news”: Investigating the role of conformity to other users’ views when commenting on and spreading disinformation in social media

an article by JonasColliander (Center for Retailing, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 97 (August 2019)

Highlights

• Fake news is an increasing problem online.
• Tests whether users conform to others' Facebook comments of fake news.
• Also tests whether others' comments were more important than ‘fake flags’.
• Others comments significantly affected attitudes and intentions to share.
• Social media companies should stimulate debunking by other users.

Abstract

This study examines the effects of conformity to others online when individuals respond to fake news. It finds that after exposure to others' comments critical of a fake news article, individuals' attitudes, propensity to make positive comments and intentions to share the fake news were lower than after exposure to others' comments supportive of a fake news article.

Furthermore, this research finds that the use of a disclaimer from a social media company alerting individuals to the fact that the news might be fake does not lower individuals’ attitudes, propensity to make positive comments and intentions to share the fake news as much as critical comments from other users.

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Self-concept of students in higher education: are there differences by faculty and gender?

an article by C.M. Rubie-Davies and K. Lee (The University of Auckland, New Zealand) published in Educational Studies Volume 39 Issue 1 (April 2013)

Abstract

Many studies examine student self-concept during compulsory schooling but few have explored the self-concept of students in higher educational settings.

The current study examined self-concept by faculty and gender among higher education students in New Zealand. Participants were 929 undergraduate students from a large New Zealand university.

The results showed some differences in verbal and maths self-concept by faculty. Generally, students in faculties teaching subjects more reliant on maths skills had higher maths self-concept than those in faculties where facility in verbal skills was important. The opposite results were found for verbal self-concept.

No overall gender differences were found for general, academic, verbal and maths self-concept although a statistically significant difference was found for problem-solving self-concept.

This finding suggests students’ choice of faculty may be based on perceptions of their skills and capabilities in the various fields, irrespective of gender.

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Adolescents’ Emotion Regulation Strategies, Self-Concept, and Internalizing Problems

an article by Manying Hsieh (Asia-Pacific Institute of Creative Technology, Miaoli, Taiwan) and Anne Dopkins Stright (Indiana University, Bloomington, USA) published in The Journal of Early Adolescence Volume 32 Number 6 (December 2012)

Abstract

This study examined the relationships among adolescents’ emotion regulation strategies (suppression and cognitive reappraisal), self-concept, and internalising problems using structural equation modelling.

The sample consisted of 438 early adolescents (13- to 15-years-old) in Taiwan, including 215 boys and 223 girls.

For both boys and girls, suppression was negatively associated, and cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with self-concept. Self-concept negatively predicted adolescents’ internalising problems.

The findings support the hypothesis that self-concept mediates the relationship between emotion regulation and internalising problems. These findings support generalization of one part of Cicchetti’s and Toth’s model of the development of internalizing problems to an Asian culture.

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Understanding the online information-seeking behaviours of young people: the role of networks of support

an article by R. Eynon and L.-E. Malmberg (University of Oxford, UK) published in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Volume 28 Issue 6 (December 2012)

Abstract

Information seeking is one of the most popular online activities for young people and can provide an additional information channel, which may enhance learning.

In this study, we propose and test a model that adds to the existing literature by examining the ways in which parents, schools, and friends (what we call networks of support) effect young people’s online information behaviours, while at the same time taking into account young people’s individual characteristics, confidence, and skills to use the Internet.

Using path analysis, we demonstrate the significance of networks of support in understanding the uptake of online information seeking both directly and indirectly (through enhancing self-concept for learning and online skills).

Young people who have better networks of support, particularly friends who are engaged in technology, are more likely to engage in online information seeking.

While quantitative models of this nature cannot capture the complexity of individual online search practices, these findings may assist in the development of policy and practice to support young people to make the most effective use of the Internet for information seeking.

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A Study of Low-Income Charitable Giving in London

an article by Roger Bennett (London Metropolitan University) published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly Volume 41 Number 5 (October 2012)

Abstract

This article presents the outcomes to a study of the charity donation behaviour of 771 low-income people residing in three socially-deprived Boroughs in inner-London.

It emerged that several variables known to affect (a) levels of charity giving and (b) choices of types of charity supported among the U.K. public as a whole also influenced the donation behaviour of the financially poor. In addition, it appeared that a participant’s sense of affinity with other low-income people and the degree to which the individual believed that the poor were unfairly treated by society at large exerted significant impacts on giving behaviour.

However, behaviour differed according to whether a low-income person was “better-educated” (i.e., possessed a qualification beyond the level normally obtained at the minimum legal school leaving age) or was less well-educated. The “very poor” did not donate a higher percentage of their incomes than the moderately poor.

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