Demographic factors influencing the sharing of fake news in Brazil
A multivariate and qualitative study
Keywords:
Fake news, politics, Brazil, misinformation, behavior, disinformationAbstract
This paper presents additional theoretical, qualitative, and empirical evidence to understand the profiles of Brazilian citizens that share political fake news online and their potential motivations. The study introduces exclusive data collection through a national telephone survey, a taylormade focus group, and quantitative multivariate modeling. The qualitative exploration exposed fake news sharing motivations such as social approval, attention attraction, or strong feelings. The empirical results show that income level (especially Brazilian middle class), religious preferences (mostly evangelicals), and online frequency of exposure to fake news are key profile drivers for sharing fake news.
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