People with schizotypy personality traits more likely to share disinformation

False information about the 2020 election on social media contributed to the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol in Washington (Picture: Samuel Corum/Getty)

In a year with more than 60 national elections across the globe, resulting in almost half the world’s population heading to the polls, never has concern over the sharing of false political information been of more concern.

Already in the UK and US, deepfakes of leading politicians have swept across social media – meaning those who do not realise what they are seeing isn’t real could be tricked into changing their vote.

The unstoppable spread of misleading content on social platforms not only damages trust in legitimate news organisations, but can even lead to social unrest, such as the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, during which five people died.

All of which begs the question – why do people continue to share it?

To investigate, a team from the University of Westminster surveyed almost 2,000 US residents to better understand why social media users choose to actively spread false information, knowingly or not.

They found those who do often display positive schizotypy, a set of personality traits that include paranoia, suspicion and disrupted thinking patterns. It has also been shown to predict the emergence of psychiatric disorders on the schizophrenia spectrum.   

The study, led by Professor Tom Buchanana, split 1,916 participants into one of four studies.

The first used an online survey to explore personality traits, such as positive schizotypy, conscientiousness and decision-making style, and users’ self-reported tendency to share false information.

Trump supporters clashed with police outside and inside the building (Picture: Getty)

The second expanded on this, looking at participants’ motivations for sharing false information, such as activism, manipulation or for entertainment.

In the third study, participants whose individual differences and motivations were surveyed viewed a series of true and false political headlines, and were asked to indicate whether they would consider sharing each, and whether they thought each was truthful.

For the fourth study, researchers assessed real posts on X posted by participants to determine if the factors identified in the previous studies could be associated with the sharing of false material.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been the victim of a deepfake shared widely on social media, with a recording alleging to show him swearing at staff (Picture: Cameron Smith/Getty)

In every study, published as one paper in the journal PLOS One, the results showed that positive schizotypy is related to sharing false information, both accidentally and deliberately.

The team suggested this may be because positive schizotypy is associated with decision making based more on intuition – and sometimes biases – rather than reflective or deliberate thought, but noted that the mechanism could be more complex.

They also highlighted the small sample sizes in some cases, which limited the exploratory analysis, but stressed the importance of understanding who shares false information and why, in a bid to help combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation.

‘We’ve all seen false political information on social media, but only a few of us choose to share it,’ the authors said.

‘This study showed that our specific motivations for sharing, as well as our individual psychological characteristics, are associated with sharing false material both accidentally and on purpose.

‘Motivations for sharing political information online were also relevant, with sharing for reasons of “raising awareness” appearing particularly important.’