Third-Person Perception of Fake News: Is it Consequential for Brands?
(A2023-114375)

AUTHORS

Ipek Nibat Cayrol, Grenoble Ecole de Management & USMB IREGE; Robert Mai, Grenoble Ecole de Management; Olivier Trendel, Grenoble Ecole de Management

ABSTRACT

Fake news not only endangers democracy and civilizations, but it also has impacts on the marketing and consumer environment. However, some individuals reject this impact, believing they are less prone to fake news than others, called Third-Person-Perception (TPP). Despite considerable investigation on the antecedents of TPP, primarily in political spheres, the consequences of TPP are either scarcely examined or produce contradictory results in terms of being detrimental or beneficial, with a lack of evidence for its downstream marketing outcomes. Authors address this issue by examining TPP in fake news denigrating brands. Three studies show that there is TPP in fake business news, but it could be a substance rather than a bias, having no negative consequences on brand attitudes. On the contrary, results suggest that encouraging TPP with fact-checking is helpful for brands as it reduces fake news sharing intentions.