The concept of “fake news”, according to wikipedia, originates from the English concept of “fake news” and is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda, which is the spreading of false information disseminated through traditional media or traditional social media such as TV or newspapers ( Himma-Kadakas, 2017 ).

The same source assesses that fake news is written and published with the intention to mislead, in order to damage the reputation of an agency, entity or person, as well as for financial or political gain, often using sensational, dishonest or simply fabricated headlines to increase readership, for online dissemination and to gain revenue by distribution on various platforms. Fake news intentionally misinforms and differs from satire or parody, which is intended to entertain rather than mislead.

There are also authors who argue that the notions of “fake news” and “fake news” are often used synonymously in everyday language, but the essential difference lies in the intention behind them, namely: fake news narratives are circulated by a state or organization with the aim of creating confusion and generating social tensions, while fake news does not originate from a state ideology or strategy and in some cases has no intention of manipulation ( Tușa, 2022 ).

In terms of the concept of psychological manipulation, it refers to a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others using hidden, deceptive or even abusive tactics. Because the manipulator pursues only his or her own interests, often to the detriment of others, these methods can be considered exploitative, immoral and deceptive ( Braiker, 2004 ). The author mentions that manipulators exploit some of the psychological vulnerabilities (weaknesses) that victims may have, such as, the desire to please people; the addiction to gaining the approval and acceptance of others; emotophobia (fear of negative emotions); lack of decisiveness and the ability to say “no”; blurred sense of identity (fuzzy personal boundaries); low self-sufficiency; rigid cognitions, external locus of control, etc.

On the other hand, Simon (1996) assesses that the success of psychological manipulation is based on the following components: the manipulator hides his aggressive intentions and behaviors; the manipulator knows the victim’s psychological vulnerabilities and determines what kind of tactics he can use; the manipulator is cruel enough not to back down from harming the victim if necessary. Consequently, manipulation tends to be camouflaged (relationally aggressive or passively aggressive).

In 2017, Claire Wardle co-founder, co-director of the Information Futures Lab and professor of practice at the Brown School of Public Health in Rhode Island, northeastern United States, considered a leader in the field of misinformation, verification and user-generated content, identified seven types of fake news with the following characteristics ( Wardle, 2017 ; Wardle & Derakhshan, 2017 ):

Therefore, we can opt for the approach that most definitions and descriptions of the two concepts, “fake news” and “fake news” are used as having similar meanings, and from one author to another some nuances appear that revolve around the idea of spreading false information, especially online, with the intention to mislead, with diversified object, subject, targets and themes.

The relevance and extent of fake news is also thought to have increased in the post-truth political system. For the media, the ability to attract readers to their websites is necessary to generate online advertising revenue. If the publication of false content attracts users, this benefits the advertisers or editorial offices of the publications concerned.

Political actors have also been involved in generating and disseminating fake news, especially during elections to attract as many people and voters as possible. For example, an analysis by media company Buzzfeed found that the top 20 “fake news” stories about the 2016 US presidential election received more attention on Facebook than the top 20 election stories circulated in traditional media channels. At the same time, anonymous websites hosting “fake news” written under anonymity have been criticized because they make it difficult to track down the authors of slanderous fake news ( Chang et al., 2016 ).

Another perspective on fake news is provided by D. Agrigoroaei ( Agrigoroaiei, 2018 ), who believes that fake news is the spread of news online that is either invented or distorts reality, and often does not represent any kind of news but is presented as if it were newsworthy.

The concept of “fake news”, the author points out, has gained more and more followers in recent years, evolving from its satirical origin in literature to a broad phenomenon of criticism. Even if they go by several names: rumor, disinformation or simple lies, these fake news/claims are usually published on websites or social media for profit or social influence. The cornerstone of a “fake news” publication is falsehood, and the main claims being communicated in “fake news” articles are fabricated and untrue, in other words, “fake news” publications are intentionally or knowingly false.

Most “fake news” articles are written in reference to some public person or different current events, and by distributing them on social media they fulfill the purpose of going viral, attracting attention, being accessed by as many people as possible and influencing them. By linking social media posts to various websites, which contain posters with different ads or advertising content, they can generate large amounts of money as a result of web traffic. In fact, a successful fake news post can be distributed millions of times and generate tens of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue.

The author also notes that it is also important to take into account the fact that there are politicians and public figures who attribute the term “fake news” to articles that have referred to them as “fake news”, which they have found defamatory or because they did not like the content, tokens to be used later to claim that they are a departure from the traditional way of publishing or to shift interest in another direction. However, traditional news publications do not fall into this category of “fake news” because they are by their nature not intentionally or knowingly false.

Nowadays the options related to the presence in the virtual environment have become habitual, including in situations aimed at carrying out professional or academic activities, but they can generate stressful situations that require the psychic apparatus to restore balance, homeostasis and adaptation. As emphasized by Alemany-Arrebola et al. (2020) , referring to the changes imposed in the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the carrying out of activities in the online version: “in the COVID-19 era, for several months families were confined to their homes, with the reason for this being the limitation of the pandemic, and thus a change in the physical and psychological dynamics of society as a whole was produced”.

But Pereira Edgar & Rosa Cecília (2024) also assess that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a phenomenon with enormous impacts in all countries, which has changed routines and way of life in most activities, some escaping to the online environment, such as, education, work, psychology, health, etc.

The increasing presence of each of us in the virtual environment may be a positive thing, but how do we know how to select the information we need, which is authentic and useful for our endeavors, how to protect ourselves from manipulative or false information and, above all, what are our behavioral patterns, whether we are talking about academic, social, family or professional environments?

The answer could take into account the existence and functioning of sanogenesis mechanisms, i.e. psychological defense or coping and positive coping mechanisms, as evidenced by the results of empirical research conducted Wang, Liu, Wu & Li (2024) .

But Jiang (2024) also opines that a solution could be mental health education, which refers to the process of helping pupils/students to recognize themselves, enhance their self-confidence, and cultivate a positive mindset and emotional regulation skills.

In the same vein, Verma (2024) opines that Positive Psychology promotes encouraging interventions to support the mental, emotional, behavioral and social well-being of pupils and students, advocating the approach of positive psychology elements in schools through the lens of the triangular functional curriculum model “Positive Psychology - Life Skills” (PPL model).

Also to be considered are the assessments that emotional intelligence, defined as the ability to identify, understand, regulate and utilize one’s own emotions as well as those of others, is proposed for use in educational settings, considered essential for teachers to effectively manage classroom dynamics and student/student engagement ( Liu, Omar, & Puad, 2024 ).

At the same time, it is worth mentioning that, based on a number of studies showing that the relationship between parental attitude and the formation in children/adolescents/young people of critical thinking, optimal behavior, adapted, prudence in the interpretation of all information ( Gherghinescu & Glăveanu, 2015 ; Glăveanu, 2012 ) and psychological resilience ( Glăveanu, 2012 ), it can be said that the attitude towards media information, especially fake news, has roots in the way people have been taught by their parents to relate to reality and to the information received from the social environment.

In the same orientation, Glăveanu (2012) brings to attention the existence of an increased number of mental health problems among adolescents/teenagers, with reference to anxiety, depression, eating disorders, in the context given by the abundance of information in the media, interpreted as a source of distress, promoting the development of resilience, the analysis of factors that determined the behavior and the approach of methods to increase the resilience of adolescents/teenagers.

In this approach we also take into account the fact that various researchers are interested in answering the question: Why does our brain accept “fake news” without challenging it?

The starting point for a partial answer to the question can be derived by analyzing some experiments and the interpretation given by their authors ( Brotherton, 2017 ), such as:

Some authors, among them Norbert Schwarz Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Basel - Switzerland, consider that the intention to mislead is as old as mankind and say that we are entering a contemporary climate in which facts and false information are mixed, even intentionally mixed, so that the management of fake news becomes important in many areas of everyday life, from politics to health information and scientific studies ( Greifeneder, Jaffe, Newman, & Schwarz, 2022 ).

However, it is appreciated by them ( Greifeneder et al., 2022 ) that the issues addressed need to be understood in the context created by online social networks, which have fundamentally changed the way information is produced, consumed and transmitted. For example, it is shown that even a minor exposure to a related but inconclusive photograph can lead people to believe that an associated claim is true, despite the fact that the photograph does not provide significant evidence as to the veracity of the claim, and this effect lasts for several days and influences several types of reasoning, including judgments about general knowledge, predictions about future events, and judgments about one’s own episodic memories.

Given that the “fake news” phenomenon is becoming increasingly widespread, also favored by the evolution of technology or the diversification of communication channels, we can easily observe that the interest in the topic proposed for study is growing.

As more concrete examples, inspired by real life, we would like to highlight some data highlighting the impact of fake news on individuals or institutions:

It goes without saying that the aforementioned phenomena are of concern to many specialists from various fields such as psychology, neurosciences, sociology, communication, etc., who will bring to our attention both the conclusions of the studies undertaken, but especially the strategies/techniques of defeat and control for individual protection, and if we will not be able to control “fake news”, we will be able to minimize their effect.

In order to explain the functional versus dysfunctional way of reporting functional versus dysfunctional reporting to situations of “fake news” confrontation we will guide the development of the study using the Stress-Vulnerability Model as theoretical foundation.

In agreement with David (2012: pp. 125-130) , the stress-vulnerability model takes into account that certain life events and situations, such as in our case the “fake news” information, when interacting with some of the person’s psychological vulnerabilities, such as rigid, irrational cognitions, can generate dysfunctional emotions or even maladaptive behavioral manifestations.

The more psychological vulnerabilities, of varying intensities, the more the person exhibits repeated impact with stressors, the more it is expected that maladaptive and dysfunctional behavioral manifestations are inevitable.

Adapting the theoretical model to the situation of the present study, in which the stressors are represented by “fake news” type information, and the vulnerabilities of the person are of cognitive nature, such as negative and catastrophic automatic thoughts, we summarize the functioning in Figure 1 .

From the previous figure, we can understand that stressors can be of the following categories: fake news information from online or physical environment, information from the work environment, etc., and psychological vulnerabilities are highlighted by externalizing locus of control, dysfunctional cognitive schemas, irrational cognitive style, intolerance to uncertainty, low self-esteem, poorly developed coping mechanisms. Consequences can be felt: 1) at the cognitive level, through automatic negative thoughts, difficulty concentrating, etc.; 2) at the emotional level, through anger; guilt, anxiety, etc.; 3) at the action level, through withdrawal, substance use etc.

The results obtained and presented showed that the research hypotheses are statistically supported, but the most important aspect highlighted is that the cognitive profile, locus of control and intolerance to uncertainty are in an interrelation with the emotional states induced by media information. Thus, we can appreciate that the onset of dysfunctional negative emotions can also be influenced by the psychological characteristics mentioned above, when we refer in particular to “fake news” type information, which is often used for manipulative purposes.

The analysis and interpretation of the results obtained in the study led to some conclusions similar to those of the authors who have studied the “fake news” phenomenon, as well as the role of certain psychological characteristics on the impact that “fake news” can have on the behavior of people in different situations and contexts.

Although each psychological characteristic studied has a role and a particular contribution in the reception, processing, interpretation and elaboration of the response to informational stimuli from the media, organizational or social environment, the central place is represented by the cognitive profile of each of us, taking into account that the cognitive level is the first to enter in relation to the stimuli.

In this sense, starting from the reasoning that cognitive schemas process all information, including erroneous or “fake news” information, the cognitions driven by the cognitive schemas formed over time often process information that overlaps with our beliefs. This process generates, on the one hand, a kind of reward for the psychic apparatus through the appearance of dopamine, and on the other hand, it trains the psychic process known in the literature as “cognitive bias”, supported by the characteristics of the irrational cognitive profile, as has been proven by the data presented.

The important role of the locus of control was also highlighted, proving that people who are characterized by an internalist orientation, who attribute the causality of events to subjective, internal determinations, which are part of the individual, ignoring the role of life situations, the conjunction of factors, chance, will have an adequate self-image and better adaptation to stimuli, in this case with information of the “fake news” type.

Let’s not forget the role of intolerance to uncertainty, a psychological characteristic seen as a vulnerability that, depending on the developmental level, favors the onset of dysfunctional negative emotions and, implicitly, supports maladaptive behaviors.

At the same time, the study also brings to attention some differences regarding the dysfunctional negative emotional states induced by the “fake news” variable according to the age of the persons, showing higher values in the over 35 age group compared to the group under 35 age, which means that older people are more sensitive and show a certain resistance to new situations, to change, perhaps also poor adaptation. For example, the biggest difference is related to the anxiety/anxiety variable, the difference between means is −30.717, corresponding to a t_calculated = −16.621 and a threshold of significance Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.000.

In conclusion, the study has revealed strong evidence that the three psychological characteristics considered as psychological vulnerabilities, namely irrational cognitive profile, externalizing locus of control and intolerance of uncertainty explain in different proportions the variance of the negative, dysfunctional emotional states induced by fake news. For example, if we refer to fear/anxiety induced by fake news, 80.7% of the variance can be explained by the irrational cognitive profile, externalism and intolerance of uncertainty.

The study was initiated and carried out solely through the personal contribution of the author and the limited funds allocated allowed the study sample to consist of only 231 individuals/students.

Although the study has some limitations, related to data collection, we can appreciate that its results may be provocative for other authors, and for the continuation and deepening of the theme through a larger study to be conducted in the future we will collect samples of students from different universities located in different localities by attracting interested researchers.

As the topic is of great interest, in future studies we will deepen the impact and implications of “fake news” on the behavioral actions from the perspective of their manipulative role, as well as identify measures or recommendations for the support of the population in such situations. To this end, a program for developing psychological resilience and a pilot study is in the design phase and will be carried out with students in laboratory classes as well as in the form of home prescriptions to practice and practice techniques in various life situations, and the results will be presented in a new article upon completion. The program is inspired by the American Psychological Association guidelines (2024) and advocates increasing resilience based on ten strategies, targeting:

Also, in future studies, it is of interest to further analyze the differences between certain age groups of the sampled individuals with regard to a number of factors such as digital literacy, healthy media consumption habits, easy access to the internet, familiarity with different electronic media and online news platforms, which might influence the way of reporting fake news.

At the same time, for future studies, we will analyze the possibility of taking into account elements related to the reciprocal influence and/or interaction between the variables of cognitive profile, locus of control and intolerance to uncertainty on emotional responses, especially those considered as psychological vulnerabilities.

We would like to thank the students who took the time to participate in the realization of this project, as well as the colleagues/teachers who gave me some suggestions regarding the choice of the topic of study and for the elaboration of the Scale of fake news and real news (S.S.F.S.A.).

This study was not supported by funds from any institutions or organizations, but only from the author’s own resources.

The scale is designed to assess how people think and react when they have to discern whether a news item is “fake news” or “true news” and comprises a total of 22 news items (items), randomly distributed across the scale.

To do so, please rate how plausible the news items below are/were (at the time they appeared) on a scale from 1 (definitely fake) to 4 (definitely true), then mark “X” in the table for each news item.

Also, for each news item, please self-assess your emotional states provoked by its content, by marking with an “X” the responses expressed on a continuum from −10 to +10, taking into account the following three bipolar dimensions: anxiety (fear) - relaxation; depression (sadness) - ecstasy; anger - calm.

1) Kiev (city in Ukraine) doesn’t want peace, because it “lives from this military conflict” and wants to make as much profit as possible now. A certain journalist points out that the Ukrainian side, under these conditions, is receiving unlimited weapons and money, concluding that “Politicians do not care that Ukrainians are cold and hungry”.

2) One country, Austria, is blocking at the last minute the decisions of 26 countries on Romania’s entry into Schengen, using the authoritarian method of consensus.

3) Romanians have saved less this year due to inflation and inflation. Around 7 out of 10 Romanian employees put money aside from their paychecks to ensure a safety net, but only half of them save consistently, a BestJobs survey shows.