Blinded by Emotions: The Association between Emotional Reactivity and Trust in Fictitious News Stories on Crime

Abstract

In the current study, we investigated the relation between emotional reactivity measured by Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale – Short Form (PERS-S) and trust in fictitious news stories on crime. In Experiment 1 we found that older adults’ general positive and negative emotional reactivity was associated with trust in the presented misinformation, experienced negative emotions elicited by the news stories and willingness to share them. In Experiment 2 we found that among young adults there was a weaker association between emotional reactivity and trust in misinformation, which involved only negative emotional reactivity. In both young and older adults, trust in fictitious news stories was associated with trust in both, traditional and new media. There was no association between high news consumption/Internet use and trust in fictitious news stories.