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social sciences
Review
Who Believes in Fake News? Identification of
Political (A)Symmetries
João Pedro Baptista 1,2, * and Anabela Gradim 2,3

1 Department of Letters, Arts and Communication, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD),
5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
2 Labcom.IFP–Communication and Arts, University of Beira Interior (UBI), 6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal
3 Department of Communication, Philosophy and Politics, University of Beira Interior (UBI),
6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal
* Correspondence: [email protected]

Abstract: Political fake news continues to be a threat to contemporary societies, negatively affecting
public and democratic institutions. The literature has identified political bias as one of the main
predictors of belief and spread of fake news. However, the academic debate has not been consensual
regarding the effect of political identity on the discernment of fake news. This systematic literature
review (2017–2021) seeks to understand whether there is consistent evidence that one political identity
may be more vulnerable to fake news than others. Focusing the analysis on European and North
American (United States) studies, we used Scopus and Web of Science databases to examine the
literature. Our findings revealed that most studies are consistent in identifying the conservative
or right-wing audience as more vulnerable to fake news. Although there seems to be a motivated
political reasoning for both sides, left-wing people or liberals were not, in any analyzed study,
associated with a greater propensity to believe in political fake news. Motivated reasoning seems
stronger and more active among conservatives, both in the United States and Europe. Our study
reinforces the need to intensify the fight against the proliferation of fake news among the most
conservative, populist, and radical right audience.
Citation: Baptista, João Pedro, and
Anabela Gradim. 2022. Who Believes
Keywords: fake news; disinformation; political ideology; political bias
in Fake News? Identification of
Political (A)Symmetries. Social
Sciences 11: 460. https://doi.org/
10.3390/socsci11100460
1. Introduction
Academic Editor: Javier Díaz-Noci
Fake news is considered a kind of online disinformation, “with misleading and/or
Received: 28 August 2022 false statements [ . . . ] intentionally created to mislead and/or manipulate, through the
Accepted: 3 October 2022 appearance of a news format with an opportunistic structure [ . . . ] to attract the reader’s
Published: 9 October 2022 attention” with the objective of obtaining an ideological or financial gain (Baptista and
Gradim 2022a, p. 10). The spread of fake news or other types of disinformation has
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
never been as dangerous as it is today. The sharing of fake news on social media had
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
strong social and political repercussions during the 2016 US presidential election. Several
published maps and institutional affil-
journalistic investigations denounced a number of hyperpartisan websites that spread
iations.
pro-Trump fake news. This fake news reached millions of comments, reactions and shares
on social media (Silverman 2016; Silverman and Alexander 2016; Silverman et al. 2016;
Subramanian 2017). Also in Europe, the proliferation of disinformation has contributed
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. to the rise of radical populist movements and parties (Zimmermann and Kohring 2020;
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Mancosu et al. 2017). Fake news has become a constant threat to democracy and journalism
This article is an open access article due to its omnipresence in national and international election campaigns (Baptista and
distributed under the terms and Gradim 2022b; Pierri et al. 2020; Zimmermann and Kohring 2020) and the way in which it
conditions of the Creative Commons attacks traditional media (Egelhofer and Lecheler 2019). With the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// consequences of disinformation became more severe, undermining the audience’s trust in
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ health and scientific authorities (Pian et al. 2021). The recent outbreak of war in Europe,
4.0/).

Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11100460 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/socsci

Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 2 of 13

with Russia invading Ukraine, has increased the proliferation of fake news and other types
of disinformation, seeking to manipulate public opinion’s perception of the conflict.
However, some studies argue that the problem of fake news may have been viewed
with alarmism, stating that its audience may not be as large as thought. The fake news
audience seems to correspond to a small and specific percentage of readers (Dubois and
Blank 2018; Fletcher et al. 2018; Guess et al. 2019; Nelson and Taneja 2018). Still, this does
not mean that the problem of fake news should be devalued.
Given this political context, we consider it extremely important to study the effect
of political identities on the belief and dissemination of fake news. A comprehensive
review on the influence of political and partisan lenses on the selection and consumption
of information (Shin and Thorson 2017; Thorson 2016; Grady et al. 2021) is still lacking. It
has long been known that individuals are more likely to accept information consistent with
their political, social, or religious values and to reject, avoid, or counter-argue information
incompatible with their pre-existing beliefs (Taber and Lodge 2006; Nickerson 1998). In a
post-truth era (see McIntyre 2018) and in the current media ecosystem, strong partisan bias
can promote political polarization, motivating the creation, in social media, of hyperpartisan
groups, where politically aligned false content can be more easily accepted (Barnidge et al.
2020; Osmundsen et al. 2021).
This study is a systematic literature review with the objective to understand whether
there is consistent evidence about political identity (conservatives or right-wing people vs.
liberals or left-wing people) turning subjects more vulnerable to fake news. Specifically,
this review intends to understand whether the literature reveals specific political identity
as a predictor of belief in fake news, considering European and North American (United
States) realities. Are the findings of the literature consistent regarding political ideology in
both contexts? Is there a political symmetry or asymmetry in relation to the belief in fake
news? What are the findings of the literature and what arguments are in force?
These are the main research questions that motivated the development of our study.

2. Believing in Fake News

Who believes in fake news? Since the 2016 US elections, with the worsening of the
dissemination of disinformation as a political weapon, the academy has gathered efforts to
understand what motivates the consumption and spread of fake news. Academic debate
discusses a number of factors that can affect the ability to discern fake news from real news.
First, some studies have shown that belief in fake news may be dependent on factors
related to individual personality (Talwar et al. 2019; Calvillo et al. 2021a; Szebeni et al. 2021).
Other studies have already reported that personality can influence judgment and decision-
making in a variety of situations (Byrne et al. 2015). While Szebeni et al. (2021) have
shown that a propensity for a conspiratorial mindset can make people more vulnerable
to misinformation, other studies (Wolverton and Stevens 2019; Sindermann et al. 2020;
Calvillo et al. 2021a) seem to agree that extraversion is related to belief in fake news. While
Talwar et al. (2019) explains that sharing and engaging with fake news can be associated
with the social anxiety of people feeling connected and included (known as Fear of Missing
Out—FOMO), on the other hand, Szebeni et al. (2021) revealed that the conspiratorial
mindset is a strong predictor of belief, surpassing political or ideological motivation. In
addition to factors associated with personality, belief in fake news can also be associated
with emotion (Martel et al. 2020), involvement with political news (Grinberg et al. 2019),
distrust in traditional media (Bennett and Livingston 2018; van der Linden et al. 2020a) or to
a higher level of political discontent (Petersen et al. 2020). In sociodemographic terms, the
literature is consensual in considering older and less educated people to be more vulnerable
to fake news (Brashier and Schacter 2020; Guess et al. 2019; Baptista et al. 2021a). Differences
between people’s genders do not seem significant (Baptista et al. 2021a). Inoculation theory
(see McGuire 1964) can help to understand the importance of digital literacy in combating
disinformation. Individuals can be “inoculated” against fake news through prior exposure
(such as training and/or digital education) to the strategies and practices used by fake
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 3 of 13

news producers (Roozenbeek and van der Linden 2019; van der Linden et al. 2020b). The
educational game “fake news game”, in which players are encouraged to create a report
using the same deceptive techniques as disinformation agents, proved to be efficient in
increasing participants’ ability to debunk fake news (Roozenbeek and van der Linden 2019).
In fact, it is known that people with higher literacy rates are better able to identify fake
news (Jang and Kim 2018). Jones-Jang et al. (2021) also found that a greater ability of people
to search for credible information online is related to a greater rebuttal of fake news. It
is in this sense that literature considers it imperative to bet on media literacy to combat
the proliferation of fake news. McDougall et al. (2019, p. 6) states that it is “necessary for
education to offer an antidote to prevent the dangers of fake news”.
In addition to these predictors, the cognitive ability involved in information processing
(along with motivated reasoning) has been one of the most studied aspects of how people
interact with disinformation. With regard to cognitive styles, there is strong evidence that
deliberate and analytical thinking can help not only in discerning disinformation (Baptista
et al. 2021b; Pennycook and Rand 2019a; Stanley et al. 2020), but also positively related to
the acceptance of false information corrections (Bago et al. 2020; Roets 2017) reducing the
tendency of subjects to engage with false content on social media (Effron and Raj 2019).

3. Motivated Reasoning and Fake News Belief

There is an extensive literature that considers that individuals are more likely to
accept information compatible with their beliefs and are more critical of information that
diverges from their identity or the values they defend (Taber and Lodge 2006; Nickerson
1998; Lewandowsky et al. 2013; Nyhan and Reifler 2010). There seems to be a bias in the
judgment of information and in the interpretation of real events. Pre-existing beliefs always
end up acting automatically and cause information to be processed by biases (Lodge and
Taber 2005). In their own social relationships, human beings tend to make friends and relate
to individuals who share the same ideas or points of view. This behavior on social media
can lead to social alienation, forming echo chambers with homogeneous and compatible
opinions (Baptista and Gradim 2021; Zimmer et al. 2019; Lorenz-Spreen et al. 2020). In fact,
individuals tend to trust more information coming from friends or acquaintances (Messing
and Westwood 2014; Sterrett et al. 2019).
Thus, confirmation bias (see Nickerson 1998) suggests that people also seek infor-
mation in line with their ideological, political, or partisan motivations. This can lead to
polarization of opinions (Bennett and Iyengar 2008; Garrett et al. 2014) and, when motivated
by political or social biases, this tendency can make it impossible to perceive well-founded
beliefs (Mercier and Sperber 2017).
Therefore, the literature has sought to understand the consumption and dissemina-
tion of political disinformation considering motivated reasoning as a fundamental aspect.
Several studies have resorted to the exposure of political fake news (in)compatible with the
political and partisan identity of users (Pennycook et al. 2018; Baptista et al. 2021a, 2021c).
In addition, motivated reasoning based on party-political identity also seems to help to
understand selective exposure to fact-checking articles (Shin and Thorson 2017) and to
understand how effective corrections are when they challenge users’ political convictions
(Garrett et al. 2013; Robertson et al. 2020). Therefore, it is very important to understand
whether there is a political and ideological (a)symmetrical reasoning in the discernment of
fake news. Does motivated reasoning work the same or differently between right-wing
people and left-wing people or between liberals and conservatives?

4. Methods
This systematic review followed a qualitative analysis that considered a set of criteria
allowing us to extract data that corresponded to our objective. We used Scopus and Web
of Science databases to examine the literature. The research focused between 2017 and
2021. We selected our data from the year 2017 because the literature considers that the
phenomenon of contemporary fake news arose during the 2016 US elections. We did
 This systematic review followed a qualitative analysis that considered a set of criteria
allowing us to extract data that corresponded to our objective. We used Scopus and Web
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 of Science databases to examine the literature. The research focused between 20174 of and
13
2021. We selected our data from the year 2017 because the literature considers that the
phenomenon of contemporary fake news arose during the 2016 US elections. We did not
include
not the year
include 2016 2016
the year in theindata
the search in order
data search to filtertocontemporary
in order fake news.
filter contemporary fakeLitera-
news.
ture published before and even in 2016 associates the phenomenon
Literature published before and even in 2016 associates the phenomenon of fake news of fake news withwith
po-
litical satire (Balmas 2014; Holbert 2005; Reilly 2012. Previously, fake
political satire (Balmas 2014; Holbert 2005; Reilly 2012. Previously, fake news was part of news was part of
entertainmenttelevision
entertainment televisionprograms
programs(Balmas
(Balmas 2014).
2014). Studies
Studies thatthat focused
focused on defining
on defining the
the new
new phenomenon
phenomenon beganbegan to emerge
to emerge post-2016post-2016 (see et
(see Tandoc Tandoc
al. 2018;et Gelfert
al. 2018; Gelfert
2018; Rini 2018;
2017).Rini
We
2017). Wefor
searched searched for publications
publications that included that
theincluded
term “fake thenews”
term “fake
relatednews” related ideology”,
to “political to “politi-
cal ideology”, “partisanship”, “left-wing”, “right-wing”, “liberal”, and
“partisanship”, “left-wing”, “right-wing”, “liberal”, and “conservative” in the article titles, “conservative” in
the article and
abstracts, titles,keywords.
abstracts, and
Thekeywords.
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on articles written
in English,
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tinent asWe
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searched We literature
searched the literature
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the Web of Science
database anddatabase and dou-
double-checked
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we found thatwe
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final of 40 articles
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(Figure 1). articles (Figure 1).
sists of 40

Figure 1. Design and search strategy. Note: (a) In the Web of Science search, articles were presented
by categories, for example “fake news AND ideology” or “fake news AND conservative”, so some
articles appeared in duplicate in other categories because the keywords refer to very similar topics.

Regarding the criteria used, the following were excluded from our analysis: publi-
cations related to the identification and detection of fake news; review articles; articles
focusing on the production and dissemination of fake news (artificial intelligence, bots,
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 5 of 13

trolls, automated processes); publications related to the concept and epistemology of fake
news and studies that were not applied in Europe or the United States.
As for the inclusion criteria, we considered for our analysis all publications that
seek to analyze predictors of belief and dissemination of fake news; articles focused on
understanding fake news consumption and user behavior on social media; and comparative
studies of political ideology and party orientation in relation to the consumption and
dissemination of fake news.
Our choice of terms is essentially based on two political dimensions: liberal vs. conser-
vative and left-wing vs. right-wing. By considering the two political-ideological dimen-
sions, we increase the scope of our research also for Europe, since the left-right dichotomy
is more commonly used for the political orientation of parties, politicians and citizens
(Freire 2006; Baptista and Loureiro 2018). In this systematic review, we did not consider
the Asian region because we aimed to understand the influence of political ideology on
the belief in fake news, considering similar media and political systems, such as the reality
of the United States and the European continent. Furthermore, left–right and liberalism–
conservatism political dichotomies are based on similar values, social, moral, and political
attitudes. These dichotomies have been, since the French Revolution, the main codes of
communication to guide and interpret political action in Western societies (Freire 2006).

5. Bibliographic Analysis
Can susceptibility to fake news be dependent on political identity? This research
question motivated researchers to seek to understand the effect of political ideology and
partisanship on the consumption of fake news.
The analysis of the literature showed that there is no specific and validated method-
ology to assess the vulnerability of individuals to disinformation, namely to fake news.
The most common method has been to classify fake and true headlines through online
surveys, as shown in Tables 1 and 2 (e.g., Pennycook et al. 2018; Pennycook and Rand 2019a;
Calvillo et al. 2020; Baptista et al. 2021a, 2021c). Political bias is mainly measured through
the presentation of fake news headlines (in)compatible with political or partisan orientation.
Other studies (such as Zimmermann and Kohring 2020; Hopp et al. 2020; Grinberg et al.
2019) collected data through user engagement on social media.

Table 1. Political asymmetry in the discernment of fake news (2017–2021).

Study Country Method or Data Main Findings Related to Our Study

Trump supporters (Conservatives/Republicans) were less
Pennycook and Survey = Exposure to fake
US able to discern fake news (vs. Clinton
Rand (2019a) and real headlines
supporters/Liberals/Democrats)
Classification of news sources
(traditional media, Democrats were better at assessing media reliability, and
Pennycook and
US hyperpartisan and fake news their ratings were more strongly correlated with those of
Rand (2019b)
sites) according to familiarity fact-checkers.
and trust
Conservatism was identified as a predictor of belief in
Survey = Exposure to fake
Calvillo et al. (2020) US COVID-19 fake news, had a less accurate discernment for
and real headlines
true and false COVID-19 headlines.
Right-wing populists in both countries label the media as
Content analysis: Twitter and
Hameleers (2020) US & NL fake news to de-legitimize their credibility. Left populists
Facebook messages
emphasize other divisions and do not blame the media.
Osmundsen et al. Survey and collection of Republicans are more likely to share fake news compared
US
(2021) (re)tweets on twitter to Democrats.
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 6 of 13

Table 1. Cont.

Study Country Method or Data Main Findings Related to Our Study

High levels of online disinformation increase the
van Kessel et al. likelihood of supporting a right-wing populist party.
Europe Cross-national survey
(2021) Being uninformed is more common among people who
support right-wing populist parties
Survey = Exposure to fake Political conservatism were negatively related to the news
Calvillo et al. (2021a) US
and real headlines discernment.
Ideologically right-wing people (conservatives) exhibited
Survey = Exposure to fake
Baptista et al. (2021a) PT a greater tendency to believe fake news, regardless of
and real headlines
whether it is pro-left or pro-right fake news.
Exposure to disinformation
Conservatives are more likely to expose themselves and
Weeks et al. (2021) US sites based on web search
engage with uninformative content.
history
Survey = Exposure to fake Conservatism is associated with a greater belief in fake
Calvillo et al. (2021b) US
and real headlines news that support voter fraud in the 2020 US elections.
Survey = Exposure to High (vs. low) authoritarians perceived distorted news
Frischlich et al. distorted news article and a with a right- wing editorial line to be more credible and
DE
(2021) typical journalist news media also perceived a distorted news article with a left-leaning
report. editorial stance as being more credible.
Survey = Exposure to fake Right-wing supporters (vs. left-wing supporters) are more
Baptista et al. (2021c) PT
and real headlines likely to believe and share compatible fake news.
Classroom sessions: Conservative students were less accurate in judging false
Whitsitt and
US classification of politically political statements than liberal and independent
Williams (2019)
accurate or inaccurate items students.
Sharing of fake news is largely driven by low
Lawson and Kakkar Survey: Exposure to real and conscientiousness conservatives. The authors found no
US
(2021) fake COVID-19 news stories differences in political ideology regarding high levels of
consciousness.
Survey = Exposure to fake Fake news inoculation effect: Conservatives (vs. liberals)
Morris et al. (2020) US
and real news stories are more likely to find the “truth” in fake news.
Survey and Facebook profile
data = Combining interviews Conservatives are more likely to share fake news than
Guess et al. (2019) US
with data about your actual liberals or moderates.
behavior on social media
Conservatives are more likely to engage with fake news
Grinberg et al. (2019) US Tweets Collection
sources.
Belief in fake news may have favored the right-wing
Zimmermann and
DE Collected survey data populist party in the 2017 elections in Germany,
Kohring (2020)
radicalizing supporters of the moderate right.
Survey = Exposure to a
political caricature or a The study demonstrates that motivated reasoning has a
Kudrnáč (2020) CZ
graphic with a brief political different effect for liberal and conservative students.
declarative expression
Survey = Exposure to
Leyva and Beckett Fake news can reinforce the partisan dispositions of
US Facebook news feed posts and
(2020) particularly politically conservative users.
online news article

Analyzing the main findings in the literature, we found that the task of “labeling”
which political identity is more or less vulnerable to fake news can be difficult. It should be
noted that most studies suggest that right-wing people (also conservatives or Republicans)
tend to be less accurate in discerning fake news (Table 1).
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 7 of 13

Table 2. Political symmetry in the discernment of fake news (2017–2021).

Study Country Method or Data Main Findings Related to Our Study

Survey = Perceived influence Third person effects of fake news: Both Republicans and
Jang and Kim (2018) US of fake news on self and Democrats believe that fake news is more influential
political groups outside the group.
van der Linden et al. Both liberals and conservatives use the term fake news to
US National Survey
(2020a) label traditional media.
Both people (who supported and did not support the
Survey = Exposure to fake
Faragó et al. (2019) HU government) believe more in fake news consistent with
and real headlines
their beliefs.
Trump supporters were more skeptical about mismatched
Pennycook et al. Survey = Exposure to fake
US fake news headlines than Clinton supporters (and vice
(2018) and real headlines
versa).
Survey = Exposure to fake Falsehood warning discourages belief in fake headlines.
Grady et al. (2021) US and real headlines with Two weeks later, the partisan bias persists for both
warning and without warning Democrats and Republicans.
Survey = Exposure to
McPhetres et al. Political news of character depreciation seems equally
US politically
(2021) appealing to Democrats and Republicans.
biased“character-focused”
Survey = Exposure to fake Participants (pro and anti-government) exhibited bias
Szebeni et al. (2021) HU
and real headlines according to their political preferences.
Experimental Survey =
Democrats and Republicans are more likely to believe and
Pereira et al. (2018) US Exposure to fake and real
share compatible political news content.
headlines
Sharing countermedia content is positively associated
Hopp et al. (2020) US Data collected on social media
with the ideological extremity (liberal or conservative).
In general, both Democrats and Republicans considered
Survey = Exposure to fake
Horner et al. (2021) US fake headlines attacking the opposing political party more
and real headlines
credible than those attacking their own.

Although most studies focus on the North American scenario, this finding is evident
in the United States and Europe. Even in relation to fake news related to the COVID-19
pandemic, conservatism was a strong predictor of belief (Calvillo et al. 2020). Other studies
have also shown that conservatives are more likely to engage with false content (Weeks et al.
2021) and are more vulnerable to fake news alleging voter fraud in the 2020 US elections
(Calvillo et al. 2021b). Furthermore, sharing fake news seems more common among strong
supporters who hate their political opponents. This trend turned out to be stronger among
Republicans (Osmundsen et al. 2021).
In Europe, belief in fake news is positively associated with right-wing people, espe-
cially radical right-wing people (Baptista et al. 2021a, 2021c; van Kessel et al. 2021) and
right-wing authoritarianism (Frischlich et al. 2021). In Portugal, Baptista et al. (2021a)
identified audiences ideologically (based on left and right dimension values) and found that
ideologically right-wing people are clearly more susceptible to fake news than ideologically
left-wing people. In fact, the findings of this study reject the theory of motivated reasoning,
showing that ideologically right-wing people believe more in fake news, regardless of the
political orientation they favor. In a similar study, but focused on partisanship rather than
ideology, Baptista et al. (2021c) found that supporters of right-wing parties are more likely
to share and believe compatible fake news. Supporters of left-wing parties did not show
this tendency.
Focusing on young Czechs, Kudrnáč (2020) also noted that motivated reasoning occurs
differently for liberals and conservatives. The study used anti-refugee (pro-conservative)
and pro-refugee (pro-liberal) arguments in caricature format. Their results suggest that
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 8 of 13

trust in politics is an important aspect among conservatives to discern falsehoods. The most
suspicious conservatives are the more affected by motivated reasoning (Kudrnáč 2020).
In the classroom context, also with the aim of evaluating the accuracy of young people
in classifying fake and real content, Whitsitt and Williams (2019) identified an ideological
asymmetry in students. Conservative students were less able to distinguish false political
information than liberal or independent students.
Despite the majority revealing a political asymmetry in relation to vulnerability to
fake news, some studies found data that reveal political symmetry. However, these results
are not so obvious (see Table 2).
This trend supports the idea that motivated reasoning occurs in a similar way for
liberals (left-wing people) and for conservatives (right-wing people). Some studies (e.g.,
Uscinski et al. 2016; Ditto et al. 2019) did not focus on fake news as an object of study, but
found motivated reasoning on both sides.
Regarding studies that report political symmetry regarding the discernment of fake
news (Table 2), we find fewer studies focused on Europe than previously (Table 1). Eu-
ropean studies that have found political symmetry focus on Hungary and both use the
pro-government and anti-government political dichotomy (Faragó et al. 2019; Szebeni et al.
2021). Both found that politically motivated reasoning affects both parties. Despite the
dividing line being based on positions of power, Szebeni et al. (2021) also sought to under-
stand the influence of right-wing authoritarianism on the belief in fake news, revealing that
they did not find a consistent relationship, even if it exists.
As for the political symmetry observed in the American context, it was noticed that
both sides (liberal and conservative) use the term “fake news” to label the traditional
media (van der Linden et al. 2020a) and that both Republicans and Democrats believe that
the “others”, outside their group, are more influenced by fake news (Jang and Kim 2018).
However, despite the motivated political reasoning affecting both in relation to the use
of the term “fake news”, the conservative audience is more likely to label the leftist or
liberal media (e.g., CNN) as fake news, than liberals are to label the media associated with
conservatives (e.g., Fox News) (van der Linden et al. 2020a). While the results suggest a
partisan bias for both, conservatives are especially likely to use the term fake news in this
way.
Contrary to studies that reveal a political difference in relation to the belief in fake
news, some studies (mentioned in Table 2) do not show such consistent results. Using the
evaluation of derogatory fake news, McPhetres et al. (2021) found that this type of headline
can be attractive to both Democrats and Republicans. However, in a first experiment, the
authors had observed that Republicans appeared to be more likely to share derogatory
fake headlines. Moreover, Pereira et al. (2018) showed that Democrats and Republicans
are prone to believe in compatible political fake news. However, the authors showed
that Republicans are more likely to share and believe apolitical fake news. These data are
relevant because they show that Republicans (conservative and right-wing) are overall
more vulnerable than Democrats.
Furthermore, Hopp et al. (2020) also showed that counter-media sharing can be
attractive to liberals and strong conservatives, but even so, conservatives (vs. liberals)
represent a greater percentage of the shares found in social media. Finally, Horner et al.
(2021) showed that both (liberals and conservatives) prefer to believe negative fake news
about the outgroup. Still, the study noted that conservatives generally give higher ratings
to headlines.

6. Discussion and Conclusions

This systematic review sought to understand the relationship between political identity
and the consumption of fake news as portrayed on current literature. Articles that directly
or indirectly studied the effect of political-ideological orientation on the discernment of fake
news were analyzed. According to the data collected, our findings reveal that most studies
have identified a political asymmetry. Through various methods, studies were consistent
Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 9 of 13

in revealing a greater vulnerability to fake news from conservatives and right-wing people.
Even in studies that have observed that motivated political reasoning can affect both sides
of politics, we find that conservatives or right-wing people are often more likely to believe
and share fake news.
Overall, our review reveals that people seem more predisposed to accept information
compatible with their pre-existing beliefs and to reject incompatible opinions or viewpoints.
This can happen regardless of political identity. This tendency, inherent to the human
being, can be observed on the left and on the right, but the right-wing political identity
(or conservatism) seems to trigger motivated political reasoning more strongly and more
frequently.
Furthermore, conservatives seem more susceptible to online disinformation and not
just fake news. Several studies have confirmed greater vulnerability of conservatives (vs.
liberals or left-wing people) to conspiracy theories (Douglas 2018; Douglas et al. 2019).
Outside the North American scene, individuals with conservative and right-wing attitudes
were identified as being more receptive to bullshits (Nilsson et al. 2019; Burger et al. 2020)
or to believe in conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 (Tonković et al. 2021).
The literature presents a series of characteristics associated with conservatives that
might explain lower ability to discern fake news. First, the agents or producers of disinfor-
mation have conservatives as their specific audience (Baptista and Gradim 2020; Grinberg
et al. 2019; Guess et al. 2019), producing content with an anti-system, conservative or pop-
ulist rhetoric (Pierri et al. 2020; Pascale 2019; Zimmermann and Kohring 2020; Scardigno
and Mininni 2020). Populist political leaders themselves use disinformation as a strategic
discursive element, appealing to alternative realities and reporting untruths and attacking
traditional media (Hameleers and Minihold 2020). The narrative of antagonizing racial,
sexual, or religious minorities is present in fake news and in the discourse of the populist
radical right (Humprecht 2020). This narrative is easily perceived in the United States, in
the rhetoric of former President Donald Trump. The combination of fake news with the
conservative and populist audience can work out perfectly, considering that individuals
with anti-political, anti-system, and populist attitudes have more hostile opinions towards
the media and the European Union integration project (Schulz et al. 2020; Stier et al. 2020;
Scardigno and Mininni 2020).
Conservatism is not only associated with greater distrust in the media (van der Linden
et al. 2020a), but also with fact-checking (Robertson et al. 2020; Lyons et al. 2020) and with
more resistance to correct false beliefs (Sinclair et al. 2020).
Second, the literature has pointed out a series of psychological aspects that can help
to explain conservatives’ vulnerability to fake news. Conservatism is generally associated
with prejudice, stigma, and intolerance (Jost et al. 2003) and is more sensitive to fear
and major change (Fessler et al. 2017). In addition, conservative and right-wing people
have also been associated with a more intuitive cognitive style in the way they process
information (Deppe et al. 2015). This cognitive style is positively correlated with the belief
and dissemination of fake news (Pennycook and Rand 2020; Sindermann et al. 2020).
To conclude, our systematic review allowed us to identify that in the current literature,
an audience segment is more vulnerable to fake news. Most studies have shown that
right-wing people or conservatives (vs. liberals) are less able to discern fake news. This
trend was not found, at least with the same evidence, for liberals or left-wing people in
any study. Throughout the discussion, we list some arguments that seem to justify this
political asymmetry. It is important to note that this review reinforces the need to focus the
fight against online disinformation targeting specific audiences. These findings suggest as
a relevant challenge the promotion of media and digital literacy actions to increase trust in
public institutions (e.g., journalism) among conservative audiences. Despite the abundant
body of literature surveyed, further studies on audiences’ attitudes and behaviors are still
needed.

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Soc. Sci. 2022, 11, 460 10 of 13

Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by MediaTrust.Lab (PTDC/COM-JOR/3866/2020).
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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