A study on disinformation in Portugal reveals that many participants are willing to share false news content even when they do not consider them credible, a behavior associated with psychological characteristics such as FoMO and impulsiveness.
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13/11/2026
by
Lusa
Participants in a study on disinformation in Portugal have expressed willingness to share false news content even when they do not consider them credible, a behavior that researchers relate to psychological characteristics and motivations of sharing.
According to the results of the Factcheck project, the intention of intentional sharing, defined as the willingness to disclose false content without considering it credible, was superior to unintentional sharing in the woke culture (12.4% against 4%) and in the trivialities (16.6% against 12.3%).
Woke culture is a sociopolitical movement that emphasizes awareness and combats social injustices, especially racism, gender inequality and discrimination.
The same pattern was observed in health, although with close values: 14.1% of participants intentionally agreed to share false contents, compared with 13.6% who would do so because they considered them credible.
On the contrary, in security and policy issues, unintended sharing prevailed, associated with belief in the truthfulness of the content.
In security, this possibility was admitted by 41.6% of the participants, given 6.7% of intentional sharing.
The results show that the attributed credibility and the intention to share do not always coincide, and the researchers identified psychological characteristics associated with both dimensions.
Among these characteristics are the fear of staying out of relevant social experiences or interactions, known as ‘Fear of Missing Out’ (FoMO), and impulsiveness, both associated with greater creditworthiness and intention to share false content.
FoMO scored an average of 2.3 on a scale of one to five, while impulsiveness averaged 1.9 on a scale of one to four.
Conspiracy mentality, extroversion and neuroticism have also emerged associated with greater credibility and intention to share false contents.
On the contrary, the need for ‘need for cognition’, associated with the taste for thought and demanding tasks, and the perceived ability to distinguish true from false information were related to less credibility and less intention to share.
Still, researchers note that statistically significant associations do not demonstrate cause and effect relationships.
The study thus distinguishes the predisposition to disclose false information by believing in it from the willingness to share it even when credibility is not attributed to it.
The Factcheck study sought to analyze the factors associated with susceptibility to misinformation and the intention to share false news content, distinguishing the credibility attributed to each content of the stated will to disclose it.
The investigation involved a representative sample of 2,500 adults in Portugal and analyzed 32 content from different areas, including politics, security, immigration, health and social issues.