Evaluations of the Authenticity of News Media Articles and Variables of Xenophobia in a German Sample: Measuring Out-Group Stereotypes Indirectly

Thomas Plieger (), Sarah Al-Haj Mustafa, Sebastian Schwandt, Jana Heer, Alina Weichert and Martin Reuter
Additional contact information
Thomas Plieger: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Sarah Al-Haj Mustafa: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Sebastian Schwandt: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Jana Heer: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Alina Weichert: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Martin Reuter: Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Xenophobic and right-wing attitudes have become a major issue in Western societies. The present study investigated how such attitudes and stereotypes influence media perception in terms of identifying manipulated news articles. In a fake news paradigm, N = 326 participants provided self-report measures of xenophobia and conservatism, and were presented with real news media articles describing crimes that were committed either by putative German (i.e., in-group) or putative immigrant (i.e., out-group) perpetrators. Half of the articles were manipulated, and the participants were asked to rate the articles with respect to the perceived veracity of the article and the reprehensibility of the described criminal offences. Xenophobia, but not conservatism, was associated with poorer news discernment and higher perceived veracity in the immigrant offender condition, but not in the native German offender condition. Reprehensibility was not differentially associated with xenophobia in the two origin-of-offender conditions. The fake news paradigm revealed an out-group bias with respect to the perceived veracity of media news, and this result offers an alternative to measure stereotypes about immigrants more subtly than by explicit self-report. Xenophobia seems to make people less sensitive to hints that could inform them about the falsehood of information.

Keywords: xenophobia; conservatism; fake news; news discernment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/3/168/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/3/168/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:168-:d:1094742

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().