The price of (dis)trust – profiling believers of (dis)information in the Hungarian context

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics.

Variable	Mean(SD)/n(%)	α
Age	36.41 (15.86)
Gender
Male	115 (39.9%)
Female	169 (58.7%)
Other	4 (1.4%)
Missing	8 (2.7%)
SES
Living comfortably …	94 (33.2%)
Coping …	142 (48%)
Finding it difficult …	37 (12.5%)
Finding it very difficult on present income	10 (3.4%)
Trust in politicians (1–11)	3.04 (2.04)
Education (1–10)	5.48 (2.27)
CMQ (1–7)	4.5 (1.19)	.79
Media consumption time daily (minutes)	57.51 (65.53)
Satisfaction with government (1–7)	3.51 (2.55)	0.92
Trust in media (1–11)	3.57 (1.83)
Belief in fake news (all types) (1–7)	3.14 (0.91)	.66
Belief in real news (all types) (1–7)	4.18 (0.79)	.47
Belief in anti-government fake news (1–7)	3.4 (1.43)	.65
Belief in pro-government fake news (1–7)	3.05 (1.38)	.71
Belief in nonpolitical fake news (1–7)	2.98 (1.24)	.37
Belief in anti-government real news (1–7)	4.16 (1.25)	.41
Belief in nonpolitical real news (1–7)	4.37 (1.16)	.45
Belief in pro-government real news (1–7)	4.01 (1.31)	.34

Table 2. Descriptive statistics and correlations for study variables.

	Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
1	Age	-	.11	−.16**	−.03	.18**	−0.04	.07	−.05	.08	−.13*	.13*	.02	.15*	.32**	−.09	.03
2	gender	-	-	−.01	.011	.14*	.002	.01	.02	−.09	.15**	−.04	.13*	−.07	.04	−.07	.13*
3	education	-	-	-	.18**	−.08	−.01	.07	.04	.13*	−.08	.06	−.06	.13*	−.02	.09	−.06
4	CMQ	-	-	.17	-	.02	−.23**	−.13*	.05	.38**	.06	.22**	−.02	.29**	.060	.27**	.09
5	Time spent on media daily	-	-	-.09	.02	-	.19**	.21**	.02	−.08	.083	−.04	−.01	−.03	−.04	−.09	.19**
6	Trust in media	-	-	-.04	-.25	.21	-	.39**	.15**	.04	.22**	−.05	.06	.017	.13*	.12*	.22**
7	Trust in politicians	-	-	.10	-.12	.23	.39	-	.49**	.01	.02	−.23**	−.22**	.03	−.08	.24**	.30**
8	Satisfaction with government	-	-	.05	.10	.02	.15	.46	-	.12*	.11	−.44**	−.33**	.14*	−.06	.55**	.58**
9	Fake news	-	-	.11	.38	-.09	.05	-.02	.13	-	.37**	.61**	.18**	.78**	.25**	.67**	.28**
10	Real news	-	-	-.11	.06	.08	.22	.01	.08	.42	-	.18**	.64**	.26**	.71**	.32**	.59**
11	Anti-government fake news	-	-	.05	.22	-.06	-.04	-.27	-.44	.59	.24	-	.41**	.25**	.13*	−.04	−.17**
12	Anti-government real news	-	-	-.07	-.01	-.03	.05	-.22	-.35	.24	.66	.46	-	.08	.28**	−.14*	−.05
13	Nonpolitical fake news	-	-	.12	.29	-.03	.02	.02	.21	.77	.33	.18	.12	-	.21**	.42**	.21**
14	Nonpolitical real news	-	-	-.10	.03	.01	.14	-.04	-.08	.30	.72	.17	.34	.27	-	.19**	.14*
15	Pro-government fake news	-	-	.08	.28	-.09	.13	.23	.54	.70	.32	-.02	-.10	.47	.18	-	.54**
16	Pro-government real news	-	-	-.05	.09	.16	.24	.27	.55	.23	.59	-.16	-.04	.27	.15	.53	-

Correlations in italics are controlled for age and gender.

**p < .001. *p < .05.

Table 3. Model fit indices (BIC and AIC) for different cluster solutions.

Number of clusters (models)	BIC	BIC change	AIC	AIC change
1	1258.511		1214.57
2	1150.646	−107.865	1062.819	−151.778
3	1112.621	−38.025	980.880	−81.938
4	1113.378	.757	937.723	−43.157
5	1116.349	2.970	896.780	−40.944

Note. BIC = Bayesian information criterion; AIC = Akaike information criterion. Bold indicates the chosen cluster solution.

Table 4. Entropy for the different cluster models and news belief variables.

News belief within each cluster model	Number of clusters	Entropy
Anti-government fake news	2	.845
	3	.829
	4	.823
	5	.837
Anti-government real news	2	.762
	3	.786
	4	.799
	5	.814
Nonpolitical fake news	2	.042
	3	.089
	4	.086
	5	.080
Nonpolitical real news	2	.081
	3	.081
	4	.108
	5	.105
Pro-government fake news	2	.816
	3	.801
	4	.829
	5	.813
Pro-government real news	2	.823
	3	.823
	4	.819
	5	.822

Note. Entropy values are reported for each news belief variable within the different cluster models. These values can be used to assess the classification quality of the clusters for each news belief variable.

Figure 1. Cluster profile means of ‘fake news believer’ profiles on radar and bar chart.

Note:Orange color in the radar chart refers to Profile 1 (“conspiracist distruster“), gray colors refers to Profile 4 (“conspiracist truster“).

Figure 2. Cluster profile means of ‘fake news nonbeliever’ profiles on radar and bar chart.

Note:Yellow color in the radar chart refers to Profile 2 (“educated opposition“), blue color refers to Profile 3 (“less formally educated“).

Figure 3. News belief map of profiles with higher overall fake news belief on radar and bar chart.

Note:Orange color in the radar chart refers to Profile 1 (“conspiracist distruster“), gray colors refers to Profile 4 (“conspiracist truster“).

Figure 4. News belief map of profiles with lower overall fake news belief on radar and bar chart.

Note:Yellow color in the radar chart refers to Profile 2 (“educated opposition“), blue color refers to Profile 3 (‘less formally educated’).

Table 5. Cluster centroids (standardized) and demographics of cluster profiles.

Variables	Profile 1 ‘conspiracist distruster’ (n = 92) Mean (SD)/n (%)	Profile 2 (n = 92) ‘educated opposition’ Mean (SD)/n (%)	Profile 3 (n = 61) ‘less formally educated’ Mean (SD)/n (%)	Profile 4 (n = 43) ‘conspiracist truster’ Mean (SD)/n (%)
Gender
Male	36 (39.1%)	33 (36.3%)	25 (41%)	21 (48.8%)
Female	55 (59.8%)	58 (63.7%)	35 (57.4%)	21 (48.8%)
Other/missing	1 (1.1%)	1(1.1%)	1 (1.6%)	1 (2.3%)
age	34.28 (14.87)	40.49 (14.07)	29.17 (14.28)	42.68 (19.22)
SES
Living comfortably …	26 (28.3%)	34 (37.8%)	23 (37.7%)	11 (26.8%)
Coping …	42 (45.7%)	46 (50.5%)	31 (50.8%)	23 (53.5%)
Finding it difficult …	16 (17.4%)	8 (8.8%)	7 (11.5%)	6 (14%)
Finding it very difficult on present income	7 (7.6%)	2 (2.2%)	-	1 (2.3%)
Trust in politicians	−.70 (.42)	−.34 (.63)	.51 (.63)	1.40 (1.07)
Education	−.48 (.75)	.94 (.70)	−.60 (.60)	−.10 (1.04)
CMQ	.78 (.71)	−.53 (.81)	−.58 (.78)	.26 (.98)
Media time	−.30 (.57)	−.05 (.63)	−.32 (.54)	1.35 (1.62)
Satisfaction with government	−.39 (.71)	−.33 (.54)	.24 (.71)	1.20 (1.50)
Trust in media	−.56 (.82)	.05 (.86)	.37 (.99)	.50 (1.07)

Table 6. Descriptive statistics of the four cluster profiles in terms of news belief (standardized).

Variables	Profile 1 ‘conspiracist distruster’ Mean	Profile 2 ‘educated opposition’ Mean (SD)	Profile 3 ‘less formally educated’ Mean (SD)	Profile 4 ‘conspiracist truster’ Mean (SD)
Fake news (all)	.33 (1.05)	−.28 (.91)	−.24 (.93)	.15 (.97)
Real news (all)	−.01 (.94)	−.01 (1.02)	−.09 (1.06)	.19 (1.04)
Anti-government fake news	.39 (.99)	−.04 (.91)	−.27 (.87)	−.45 (1.09)
Anti-government real news	.17 (.91)	.19 (1.03)	−.19 (.89)	−.48 (1.13)
Nonpolitical fake news	.19 (1.04)	−.24 (.93)	−.13 (.98)	.11 (.97)
Nonpolitical real news	.02 (1.03)	−.02 (.96)	.09 (.99)	−.18 (1.09)
Pro-government fake news	.07 (1.01)	−.30 (.74)	−.09 (.77)	.67 (1.4)
Pro-government real news	−.19 (.91)	−.18 (.83)	−.07 (.89)	.97 (1.17)

Table 7. Highest education of profiles in our study and the national average (KSH, 2016).

Variables	Profile 1 ‘conspiracist distruster’	Profile 2 ‘educated opposition’	Profile 3 ‘less formally educated’	Profile 4 ‘conspiracist truster’	National average
Primary school, vocational education	8.6%	0	6.7%	7%	44.8%
Matriculation exam	74%	7.6%	80.3%	51.1%	33.4%
Diploma of higher education	17.4%	92.4%	13%	41.9%	21.8%

Table 8. One-way analyses of variance between groups in news belief items.

Measures	F(3,285)	p-value	Partial η^2
Anti-government fake news	9.744***	<.001	.094
Anti-government real news	6.320***	<.001	.063
Nonpolitical fake news	5.150	.019	.034
Nonpolitical real news	.609	.610	.006
Pro-government fake news	10.274***	<.001	.099
Pro-government real news	18.204***	<.001	.162

***p < .001.

Table 9. Results for Bonferroni’s multiple comparisons between different clusters in terms of news belief.

Dependent Variable	(I) TwoStep Cluster Number	(J) TwoStep Cluster Number	Mean Difference (I-J)	Std. Error	Sig.	95% Confidence Interval
						Lower Bound	Upper Bound
Anti-government fake news	1	2	−.58	.26	.14	−1.26	.010
		3	−.25	.27	1.00	−.98	.48
		4	−1.20*	.25	<.001	−1.87	−.52
	2	1	.58	.26	.14	−.10	1.26
		3	.33	.23	.90	−.28	.94
		4	−.62*	.20	.02	−1.16	−.07
	3	1	.25	.27	1.01	−.48	.98
		2	−.33	.23	.90	−.94	.28
		4	−.95*	.23	<.001	−1.56	−.34
	4	1	1.20*	.25	<.001	.52	1.87
		2	.62*	.20	.02	.07	1.16
		3	.95*	.23	<.001	.34	1.55
Anti-government real news	1	2	−.84*	.23	.001	−1.45	−.24
		3	−.37	.24	.77	−1.02	.28
		4	−.82*	.23	.002	−1.42	−.21
	2	1	.84*	.22	.001	.24	1.45
		3	.47	.20	.12	−.07	1.02
		4	.02	.18	1.0	−.46	.51
	3	1	.37	.24	.770	−.28	1.02
		2	−.47	.20	.123	−1.01	.067
		4	−.44	.20	.168	−.98	.09
	4	1	.82*	.23	.002	.21	1.42
		2	−.02	.18	1.000	−.51	.46
		3	.44	.20	.168	−.09	.99
Pro-government fake news	1	2	1.34*	.24	<.001	.68	1.99
		3	1.03*	.26	<.001	.33	1.73
		4	.82*	.24	.005	.17	1.47
	2	1	−1.34*	.24	<.001	−1.98	−.69
		3	−.30	.21	1.000	−.88	.28
		4	−.51	.19	.054	−1.03	.01
	3	1	−1.03*	.26	<.001	−1.73	−.33
		2	.30	.21	1.000	−.28	.88
		4	−.21	.21	1.000	−.79	.36
	4	1	−.82*	.24	.005	−1.47	−.17
		2	.51	.19	.054	−.01	1.03
		3	.21	.21	1.000	−.37	.80
Pro-government real news	1	2	1.50*	.22	<.001	.90	2.10
		3	1.36*	.24	<.001	.72	2.01
		4	1.52*	.22	<.001	.92	2.12
	2	1	−1.50*	.22	<.001	−2.10	−.90
		3	−.13	.20	1.000	−.67	.40
		4	.02	.18	1.000	−.45	.50
	3	1	−1.36*	.24	<.001	−2.00	−.72
		2	.13	.20	1.000	−.40	.67
		4	.15	.20	1.000	−.37	.69
	4	1	−1.52*	.22	<.001	−2.12	−.93
		2	−.02	.18	1.000	−.50	.45
		3	−.16	.20	1.000	−.69	.37

*The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level.

KSH. (2016). A magyar népesség iskolázottsága. https://www.ksh.hu/interaktiv/storytelling/iskolazottsag/index.html

 Google Scholar

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study and the supplementary materials are openly available in OSF at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/QSKFM