What drives acceptance and propagation of online misinformation? An integrative re-examination of key enabling factors

Misinformation has become a critical challenge for organizations and societies, threatening to disrupt key social, economic and public health goals. With the pervasiveness of social media, and the advent of novel AI technologies, the scale and complexity of misinformation has reached unprecedented levels. Consequently, an important focus of social science research in this area has been to understand why individuals are susceptible to consuming and sharing misinformation online, and what can be done to mitigate its adverse effects. In this study, we re-examine and synthesize key findings on the psychological, social and technological drivers of misinformation from the past decade to emphasize important gaps and avenues for future research on the topic. Based on our integrative review, we highlight four important directions for researchers and policy makers to consider. First, it will be useful to expand the definition of misinformation beyond notions of information quality and facticity, and incorporate its potential for manipulation and harm. Second, there is an urgent need to invest in more causal studies that can establish (or falsify) the harmful impacts of online misinformation in critical domains such as politics, health and marketing. Third, we need to better understand non-cognitive and motivational pathways of misinformation spread i.e., how/why misinformation proliferates as a result of social processes, both at an interpersonal (e.g., due to self-presentational motives) and societal level (e.g., due to declining trust in mainstream institutions, and increasing social polarization). Lastly, future studies should reinvestigate current findings in the context of emerging digital populations and platforms that currently remain understudied. Drawing on these findings, we highlight key areas for improving policies and technologies to mitigate the potential harms of misinformation.