Combating Fake News: An Investigation of Information Verification Behaviors on Social Networking Sites

The use of the term 'fake news' has recently become widespread; however, research on fake news is limited. This research intends to increase understanding of how users of social networking sites (SNSs) determine if they should confirm the validity of news content. Grounded in research on the epistemology of testimony, we develop and test a research model based on perceptions related to news authors, news sharers, and users to test verification behaviors of users. The findings indicate that social tie variety, perceived cognitive homogeneity, trust in network, fake news awareness, perceived media credibility and intention to share influence an individual's news verification behavior. We discuss the implications of our findings for SNS designers as well as users. We also integrate the theoretical perspectives of trust and testimony and demonstrate their value for explicating verification behaviors.