Ideological Influences on Fake News: How Religious and Political Orientations Amplify Confirmation Bias and Attenuate Social Media Engagement

Abstract

The rapid dissemination of fake news on social media poses unprecedented chal-lenges to consumer trust and the legitimacy of businesses. This research investi-gates how exposure to fake news, moderated by religious and political orientations,exacerbates confirmation bias and reduces social media engagement, with subse-quent effects on consumer perceptions of businesses. Across three experimentalstudies (N = 1,052), we integrate construal level theory, moral foundations theory,and elaboration likelihood model to propose and test a novel framework. Findingsreveal that fake news triggers distinct cognitive and moral pathways - dependent onideological strength - leading to heightened confirmation bias and reduced engage-ment (e.g., sharing, liking). Advanced analytics, including moderated mediation andlatent profile analysis, underscore the heterogeneity of these effects. This studypioneers a multidimensional understanding of fake news in consumer behavior, of-fering actionable insights for marketers and policymakers to counter misinformationin ideologically polarized contexts.