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News or noise? Consumer susceptibility towards misinformation

Author

Listed:
  • Rishab Lodh

    (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata Campus)

  • Oindrila Dey

    (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata Campus)

Abstract

In the post-truth era, consumer awareness is considered a critical defense against the rapid dissemination of misinformation; however, ‘love for information' might induce consumers to overlook manipulative content, referred as ‘fear of missing out' (FOMO). In this paper, we probe if high-aware consumer experiencing FOMO can lead to more dissemination of misinformation? Categorizing consumer on traits like, ideological sensitivity and level of awareness, we derive the pooling equilibrium condition under which misinformation propagates in a signaling framework. The results reveal that while greater awareness reduces incidence of misinformation, presence of FOMO can offset this effect by relaxing the pooling equilibrium conditions. Unlike the extant literature, our findings highlight the need to integrate behavioral factors into misinformation-mitigation strategies

Suggested Citation

  • Rishab Lodh & Oindrila Dey, 2026. "News or noise? Consumer susceptibility towards misinformation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 46(1), pages 232-239.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-25-00572
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • C7 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory

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