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What kind of fake news are young people vulnerable to? And does it even matter these days where the news comes from? Political preference plays a role in this, concludes Eva Janssen, education specialist at Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ��, as part of a recent study. “Not just the content of a fake news item is important – the source matters as well.” Right-wing students are more likely to believe a news item with a right-wing message when it is posted by Jesse Klaver from the GreenLeft party than when it is posted by Thierry Baudet from the Forum for Democracy party.

Assessing the truth of news items
The aim of this study – which was awarded an invigoration grant by UU's Dynamics of Youth – is to map both the process of assessing the content of the fake news and the role that context plays in students’ assessment of these messages. The study consisted of a survey among 168 students. They were shown eight Facebook posts that were designed by the researchers, but were presented as posts made by male politicians. A number of the posts were presented as posts by Thierry Baudet or Jesse Klaver, while others were made out to be posts by two other, lesser-known politicians, namely Ton Schijvenaars and Gerrit de Wit. For each of the posts, the students who took part in the study had to indicate to what degree they either agreed or disagreed with the politician in question.

"It's about that awareness when reading the news."

Awareness
On average, students agreed with the fake news just as often as they did with the actual news. “In the follow-up round, we asked the students to revisit the same posts. However, this time we informed them that some of these posts contained fake news, and asked them to separate the fake posts from the correct ones. This time, the students were quite adept at separating disinformation from factual information. It's about that awareness when reading the news,” says Eva Janssen.

Distrust of mainstream media
To Janssen, the importance of researching fake news is obvious: “The past few years have shown us the effect that fake news can have on society. People are less likely to trust the government and mainstream media.” Her advice is to educate children and young people more about fake news. “ Intuition isn’t always a reliable counsel. Most importantly, you need to be aware that a message may include false information,” says Janssen.

“I was interested to see to what extent context played a role. What happens when a right-wing politician shares more left-leaning information?"

Political preference
The study also showed the role that the participants’ political preference played. “You’re more likely to believe fake news if it matches your own views,” says Janssen. “I was interested to see to what extent context played a role. What happens when a right-wing politician shares more left-leaning information? This did in fact yield some interesting results. When ‘Jesse Klaver’ shared a right-wing message, the right-wing participants were more likely to believe it than when ‘Thierry Baudet’ shared the same message.” Janssen has speculated on a possible explanation: “When right-wing participants see that even Jesse Klaver has taken up a particular right-wing view, then it has to be true, right?”

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However, the same was not found to be true the other way round. Left-wing participants weren’t any likelier to believe left-wing messaging when it was posted by ‘Thierry Baudet’. According to Janssen, one possible explanation for this is Baudet’s image. “Baudet is a much more controversial figure. Consequently, not everyone has a positive view of the man. That could make any messages posted by him less likely to convince people.”