Would I Lie to You? How Users Evaluate Faked Online Content Depending on Its Publication Type

Abstract

Since the unexpected outcome of the 2016 US elections and the Brexit referendum, the term fake news mutated to an almost daily mentioned topic in the media. Current research on this topic mostly deals with the effect of fake news on opinion formation, but rarely considers the publication type of the forged content. We investigate the differences in user assessment of faked content between an objectively written news article and an emotionally loaded conversation on a question and answer platform. Our results show, that news articles seem to be more credible and persuasive, but both faked publication types did not impel the users to change their opinion about an environmental topic.