Characterizing Users’ Propensity to Misinformation Engagement During COVID-19 Based on the Five Factor Model of Personality

Abstract

Characterizing the vulnerable people to misinformation engagement is important for combating misinformation. This study has examined the main effects and interaction effects of personality traits on misinformation engagement through multinomial logistic regression based on digital-traces data of 1,398 social media users. Some interesting findings were revealed, for instance, people high in neuroticism were likely to engage in misinformation. Additionally, higher neuroticism increased the likelihood that conscientious people would comment on misinformation. Main contributions of this study are the construction of a personality trait scale based on digital-trace indicators and the disclosure of relationship between users’ personality traits and their misinformation engagement behaviors. The findings of this research can provide insights on the understanding of factors behind the misinformation engagement behaviors and support the detection of users who are vulnerable to misinformation on social media.