Understanding the Influence of Confirmation Bias on the Acceptance of Political Misinformation

Abstract

Social media has played a key role in polarizing opinion on politics, climate change and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. The polarization caused by social media (SMIP) poses serious challenges to society, as it can cause "digital fires" that can cause damage around the world. Although the effects of SMIP have been widely studied, understanding of the interaction between two key components of this phenomenon - confirmatory bias (strengthening one's views and beliefs) and echo chambers (hearing only one's voice) - remains limited. This work addresses this knowledge deficit by exploring how manifestations of confirmatory bias contributed to the development of echo chambers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. A thematic analysis of data collected from 35 participants engaged in information processing in the supply chain serves as the basis for the SMIP conceptual model and four key cross-proposals arising from the data and relevant to research and practice.