The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Fake News Credibility

The fake news phenomenon has been affecting politics, public figures and businesses, and consumers’ inability to differentiate true and false information plays a role in spreading this type of news. In the present research, we propose that mindfulness and meditation could be a tool for consumers to develop their attention in order to better detect if news are fake. In an attempt to test our hypotheses, we conducted two studies, one correlational and one experimental. On the first study we demonstrate that those who practice meditation on a regular basis tend to be less susceptible to believe in fake news. We also found a correlation between dispositional mindfulness and skepticism. Our second study shows, through eye tracking tools, that a six-minute meditation induction affects consumers’ attention and effort while reading fake news, but does not lead to less credibility in fake news.