Fake news detection on social media: the predictive role of university students’ critical thinking dispositions and new media literacy

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the predictive role of critical thinking dispositions and new media literacies on the ability to detect fake news on social media. The sample group of the study consisted of 157 university students. Sosu Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale, New Media Literacy Scale, and fake news detection task were employed to gather the data. It was found that university students possess high critical thinking dispositions and new media literacies as well as high fake news detection abilities and there is a positive and moderate relationship among these variables. Also, this study revealed that critical thinking dispositions and new media literacies significantly predicted university students’ abilities to detect fake news on social media and they together explained 18% of the total variance on fake news detection. Besides, university students’ critical thinking dispositions presented a larger effect on their abilities to detect fake news than new media literacies.