Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from Spanish
Characterizing false information based on linguistic analysis is important to understand the factors that affect the proliferation of fake news in the media. Previous work has identified some linguistic regularities that suggest a trend towards decreased complexity, polarization and sentiment in fal...
| Published in: | Psychology of Language and Communication |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Sciendo
2025-01-01
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2025-0012 |
| _version_ | 1848649777917460480 |
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| author | Reali Florencia |
| author_facet | Reali Florencia |
| author_sort | Reali Florencia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| container_title | Psychology of Language and Communication |
| description | Characterizing false information based on linguistic analysis is important to understand the factors that affect the proliferation of fake news in the media. Previous work has identified some linguistic regularities that suggest a trend towards decreased complexity, polarization and sentiment in false information. This study is aimed at identifying linguistic differences between real and fake news using a corpus of annotated media news in Spanish via the automatic analysis of linguistic cues using dictionaries of lexical norms. We focus on lexical aspects of complexity, familiarity and sentiment. Consistent with previous results, we found that fake news are associated with lower cognitive loads, reflected by reduced sentence complexity, and increased lexical familiarity and imaginability. Moreover, and consistently with previous results, the analysis revealed that fake news are associated with more polarized emotional content. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-0ef213ff4e9d4ddc8d86e900712d3424 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Journals |
| issn | 2083-8506 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| spelling | doaj-0ef213ff4e9d4ddc8d86e900712d34242025-11-03T05:52:43ZengSciendoPsychology of Language and Communication2083-85062025-01-0129126628310.58734/plc-2025-0012Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from SpanishReali Florencia0Neurociencia y Aprendizaje, Universidad Católica del Uruguay, UruguayCharacterizing false information based on linguistic analysis is important to understand the factors that affect the proliferation of fake news in the media. Previous work has identified some linguistic regularities that suggest a trend towards decreased complexity, polarization and sentiment in false information. This study is aimed at identifying linguistic differences between real and fake news using a corpus of annotated media news in Spanish via the automatic analysis of linguistic cues using dictionaries of lexical norms. We focus on lexical aspects of complexity, familiarity and sentiment. Consistent with previous results, we found that fake news are associated with lower cognitive loads, reflected by reduced sentence complexity, and increased lexical familiarity and imaginability. Moreover, and consistently with previous results, the analysis revealed that fake news are associated with more polarized emotional content.https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2025-0012fake newsnews replicationlinguistic cuescomplexityemotional content |
| spellingShingle | Reali Florencia Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from Spanish fake news news replication linguistic cues complexity emotional content |
| title | Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from Spanish |
| title_full | Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from Spanish |
| title_fullStr | Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from Spanish |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from Spanish |
| title_short | Fake News are Easier, More Emotional and Less Complex: Some Evidence from Spanish |
| title_sort | fake news are easier more emotional and less complex some evidence from spanish |
| topic | fake news news replication linguistic cues complexity emotional content |
| url | https://doi.org/10.58734/plc-2025-0012 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT realiflorencia fakenewsareeasiermoreemotionalandlesscomplexsomeevidencefromspanish |