%0 Journal Article
%A Shin, Inyoung
%A Wang, Luxuan
%A Lu, Yi-Ta
%+ Department of Human Behavior Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Twitter and endorsed (fake) news: The influence of endorsement by strong ties, celebrities, and a user majority on credibility of fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000A-70D2-A
%R 1932–8036/20220005
%7 2022-05
%D 2022
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X Focusing on a widespread COVID-19 conspiracy theory, this study examines how social<br>endorsement systems on Twitter, represented by retweets and metrics indicating the<br>number of engagements by others, affect assessment of credibility of (fake) news.<br>Expanding studies on social influence and endorsement-based heuristics, we hypothesized<br>that Twitter users would consider fake news retweeted by a strong tie and with cues<br>indicating a greater number of likes, comments, and retweets as more credible than news<br>retweeted by a celebrity and without the cues. Through a two-by-two survey experiment<br>among 267 Twitter users, we found evidence to support these hypotheses. We additionally<br>found that the effectiveness of strong ties and celebrities as retweeters varied by users’<br>perceptions of their attributes and users’ interactions with them. These findings add to the<br>literature of news credibility by demonstrating the effects of endorsements from social<br>media contacts. Our study partly explains how and why fake news and disinformation<br>spread in the networked online environment. We conclude this study by discussing<br>implications for interventions of fake news on social media
%K Fake news; Disinformation; News credibility; Endorsement-based heuristic;
Social media
%J International Journal of Communication
%V 16
%& 2573
%P 2573 - 2595
%I The Annenberg Center for Communication 
%@ 1932-8036