conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is a personality trait that negatively predicts the sharing of fake news. A re-analysis of studies found that conscientiousness operates as a negative but highly heterogeneous predictor of fake news sharing, with correlations varying depending on the dataset and analytical approach used. Conscientiousness also moderates the relationship between political ideology and misinformation sharing; specifically, higher conscientiousness attenuates the positive effect of right-wing political ideology on fake news sharing. The magnitude and detectability of these effects depend critically on methodological choices such as how ideology is operationalized, which news stimuli are used, and the analytical specifications employed, demonstrating that context substantially shapes the role conscientiousness plays in the misinformation ecosystem.

Sources: Lawson & Kakkar (2024)