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PreprintID:
5d87daa9f895ab0012b962322,678 bytesFirst seen Jun 24, 20261 collectionFields
| Name | Value |
|---|---|
| abstract | In 1964, Richard Hofstadter authored The Paranoid Style in American Politics. Fifty-five years later in an era now littered with “fake news” websites and conspiracy theories that can spread rapidly over the Internet, Hofstadter’s work warrants revisiting. In this paper, I draw on the concept of the “paranoid style,” but with a quantitative twist. Psychologists Allan Fenigstein and Peter Vanable (1992) developed a survey instrument to assess paranoid thought. Using data from a survey that combines the Fenigstein and Vanable paranoia instrument with questions about present-day political conspiracies and fake news stories, my research asks: Is there a relationship between paranoia and one’s willingness to accept or deny established political facts? I hypothesize that in today’s sometimes confusing information environment, paranoia plays a significant role in understanding why some Americans are more susceptible than others to believing misinformation popularized through fake news websites. The results confirm my expectations. |
| abstractViews | 1892 |
| approvedDate | 2019-09-24T13:44:36.626Z |
| assetFileName | APSA_2019_Francia_Paranoia.pdf |
| assetFileSizeBytes | 246408 |
| assetMimeType | application/pdf |
| assetUrl | https://www.cambridge.org/engage/api-gateway/coe/assets/orp/resource/item/5d87daa9f895ab0012b96232/original/the-paranoid-style-and-the-rise-of-fake-news-in-american-politics.pdf |
| authorIds | ["name:peter francia"] |
| categoryIds | ["5ce663395846762193c9c422"] |
| citations | 0 |
| commentsCount | 0 |
| communityId | APSA |
| competingInterestsDeclaration | null |
| contentDownloads | 4326 |
| contentType | Working Paper |
| contentTypeId | 5ce663395846762193c9c430 |
| doi | 10.33774/apsa-2019-p6gq5 |
| doiUrl | https://doi.org/10.33774/apsa-2019-p6gq5 |
| engageUrl | https://www.cambridge.org/engage/coe/article-details/5d87daa9f895ab0012b96232 |
| eventId | null |
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| isLatestVersion | true |
| keywords | ["fake news","misinformation","paranoia","political knowledge"] |
| licenseId | 5cc9d9bf7d4e0000ac04ef27 |
| publishedDate | 2019-09-24T13:44:36.641Z |
| status | PUBLISHED |
| statusDate | 2019-09-24T13:44:36.641Z |
| subjectId | 5e68cb1bd1f19d49ce3ac752 |
| submittedDate | 2019-09-23T20:44:17.293Z |
| supplementaryFiles | [] |
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| title | The Paranoid Style and the Rise of Fake News in American Politics |
| version | 1 |
| vor | null |
| webLinks | [] |
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}Appears in 1 collection
cambridge-up/open-engage1 version · Jun 24, 2026
Full hash:e7e5257b13f92f438c7221a2208aa134556c33814fd61e8215b0ecb66f1f9f00