The influence of involvement and emotional valence on accuracy judgments and sharing intention of fake news

ABSTRACT Recent studies proposed that emotional valence of news affected individuals’ beliefs in fake news. However, the results across various studies remain controversial. Involvement probably have an influence on beliefs in fake news. To understand whether involvement modulates the role of different valences of fake news, we designed two experiments. Both Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 were 2 (valence: positive, negative) *2 (involvement: high, low) within-subject designs. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that the interaction between involvement and emotional valence on accuracy judgment was significant. The results indicated that the role of emotional valence in the accuracy judgment of fake news was affected by involvement, which provided evidence to explain the contradictory results for the role of valence on fake news beliefs. Experiment 2 found the main effect of involvement and emotional valence on sharing intention, indicating that the sharing intention of fake news was regulated by involvement and emotional valence respectively.