In a study conducted in 2023, researchers investigated how reading news in a native or foreign language impact the way we beleive it or not.. In the primary task, 300 participants had to read newstitles and judge if a news seemed more true or false. Authors used temporary deception by making half of the newstitles false. Newstitles were randomly displayed in the native or foreign language of the participant. The analytical approach involved comparing type of news, language of news, native or foreign language of participant (authors refer to a “linear mixed-effects analysis”). Confounders like perceived arousal of news and general English proficiency were controled. Among other hypothesis, the primary hypothesis which posited that fake news would be more beleived in foreign language than native language (and true news would be more beleived in native language than foreign language), was supported by the results with a not found effect size. This overview provides a concise synthesis of the most relevant results. For more details, please refer to the article page.
When using their non-native language, users may be less critical of news content, making them more susceptible to misinformation.
Muda, R., Pennycook, G., Hamerski, D., & Białek, M. (2023). People are worse at detecting fake news in their foreign language. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000475