Simulating the Impact of Personality on Fake News

Coates, Annabel; Muller, Tim; Sirur, Sean

Abstract

Fake news is a key issue for social networks. We use an agent-based network simulation to model the spread of (fake) news. The agents' behaviour captures the OCEAN ("big five") personality trait model. The network is homophilic for political preference, analytical thinking and emotion. We studied the system with personality traits and homophily each turned on/off. Personality traits and homophily exhibited a statistically significant but typically minimal impact. Ignoring personality traits when modelling fact-checking can overestimate its effectiveness.

• Journal Article Type: Conference Paper
• Conference Name: 22nd International Workshop on Trust in Agent Societies (TRUST 2021)
• Conference Location: London, UK
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Publication Date: May 2, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 18, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 27, 2023
• Journal: CEUR Workshop Proceedings
• Print ISSN: 1613-0073
• Publisher: CEUR Workshop Proceedings
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 3022
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/25362159
• Publisher URL: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3022/paper6.pdf
• Related Public URLs: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3022/