INTRODUCTION
On a cold December day in Washington D.C., Edgar Welch burst into a family pizzeria
and accused the owner, James Alefantis, of conspiring with Hillary Clinton and the Democrats to
operate a child sex trafficking ring. Equipped with an assault rifle and handgun, Welch had
driven some five hours from his North Carolina home to “rescue” children he believed were
being harbored in the restaurant’s basement (Alefantis, 2017).
Only, the child-slavery ring did not exist; it had been concocted by conspiracy theorists
and spread rapidly via social media and fake news websites. As a result of his actions, Welch
will serve four years in jail for assault with a deadly weapon and transporting a firearm across
state lines (Bendix, 2017). Media personality Alex Jones, threatened with a libel suit, apologized
publicly for promoting the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory on his InfoWars website and through
other sources (Alefantis, 2017). Even so, Comet Ping Pong, its employees, and Alefantis
received death threats and online discussion in fake news chat rooms alleging the authenticity of
“Pizzagate” continued. Additionally, groups protested loudly outside the restaurant, referring to
it “Sodom and Gomorrah,” among other names (Alefantis, 2017).
“Pizzagate” is one example of how fake news can have negative consequences in society,
including risks to public and individual safety and damage to reputation. Fake news sites have
capitalized on current events to circulate hoaxes and conspiracy theories to varying results. For
example:
• After the Las Vegas Mandalay Bay shooting—one of the worst mass shootings in
modern American history—an online fake news outlet and CNN look-alike spread
false rumors that an injured hotel security guard was arrested as an accomplice and
second gunman (Mikkelson, 2017).
• A fake news website falsely accused acclaimed chef Gordon Ramsay of kicking four
Miami Dolphins football players out of his restaurant because he was ashamed of
them kneeling during the national anthem (LaCapria, 2017).
• Multiple media outlets published exaggerated claims that Yellowstone National Park
volcano was going to erupt and wipe out the human race. These claims exploited
research from Arizona State University about new developments in understanding the
volcano and turned it into a doomsday conspiracy (Kasprak, 2017).
In an effort to better understand fake news and its impact, this study examines the
psychological processes through which people observe, are persuaded by, and motivated to share
fake news on social media. This is a valuable site of study because fake news, as illustrated
above, negatively impacts, misleads, and has the potential to endanger society. Because media
are an important site of information for most people, it is necessary to develop ways to combat
the harmful proliferation of fake news in order to promote media literacy and journalistic
integrity. Research about the psychological reasons that people consume and share fake news is
an important step to conceptualizing successful tools to combat fake news.Bachelor of Art
