Detecting Fake News on Social Media among Students: The Role of Curiosity, Critical Thinking, and Media Literacy

<p>The rapid spread of misinformation on social media poses significant challenges foryoung users’ ability to evaluate information critically. This study examines therelationship between critical thinking, media literacy, and the ability to detect fake newsamong university students. A sample of 308 students from social sciences facultiescompleted standardized measures of critical thinking dispositions, curiosity, medialiteracy, and accuracy in identifying fake news presented in social media formats.Results showed that students with higher levels of media literacy and critical thinkingwere more accurate at distinguishing real from fabricated news. Better fake newsdetection was accompanied by greater curiosity and confidence and by lower perceiveddifficulty when judging online content. Curiosity also predicted stronger knowledgeexploration, indicating that epistemic motivation supports deeper verification andlearning. These findings highlight the need for educational interventions that integratemedia literacy, critical thinking, and epistemic emotion development into highereducation curricula to strengthen reflective judgment and information evaluation skillsas defences against misinformation in the digital age.</p>