If it was shared on Facebook and Twitter, then it must be true. Een kwantitatief onderzoek naar de relatie tussen fake news en angst voor criminaliteit

If it was shared on Facebook and Twitter, then it must be true. A quantitative study of the relationship between fake news and fear of crime The media are a main source of information on crime for citizens. Prior research shows that media and fear of crime are not independent of each other. Since fake news is spread through (social) media, the question arises what the relationship is between (perceived) fake news and fear of crime. To date, no large-scale representative research has been conducted on this topic. This study is based on a representative population survey (n = 1566) from 2019. This exploratory study shows a small but significant relation between the perceived prevalence of fake news and fear of crime.