3 Things That Make People Easier To Believe Hoaxes

JAKARTA - Fake news and untrue information such as hoaxes and disinformation are widely spread on social media. The low level of literacy in Indonesian society makes it easy for people to believe hoaxes, or even get involved in making and spreading them.

According to a psychiatrist at the Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital (RSCM) Jakarta, Dr. Gina Anindyajati, Sp.KJ, there are at least three factors that influence a person to easily believe in fake news and hoaxes, if viewed from a psychological perspective.

"The first factor is the tendency to deny what is happening so that the individual concerned will believe anything that is counter/contrary to the existing facts", said Dr. Gina quoted from ANTARA.

"When something happens that makes someone lose (something valuable, including opportunity and freedom), then people will tend to deny it. Especially if it makes someone have to change and get out of their comfort zone", she added.

Furthermore, the second factor relates to the psychological tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Then, the third factor that makes people easily believe in fake news/hoaxes is the ideological and political attachment to hoax spreaders.

"People tend to be enthusiastic about spreading fake news because they believe that the news is true; about 30 percent believe what they are transmitting is true. In addition, it is also because people think that fake news has a part in common with themselves (political identity or other beliefs) so that 'feel the need' to spread", explained Dr. Gina.

She added that people who spread fake news also have emotional impulses and intend to make others feel the emotional effects that they experienced when reading the headlines of fake news.

The third factor, laziness to find the truth of the news. When asked about fact-checking before spreading information, Dr. Gina said that people tend to refuse to do fact-checking because cognitively humans are lazy, so they don't pay full attention to the news they read.

"The human brain saves energy for important tasks, so not all information will be cross-checked to ensure its validity. Moreover, if this fake news turns out to be submitted by a credible party, spread widely, then the human brain automatically perceives it as 'true'", she said.