e7e5257b13f92f43…

Preprint
ID: 5d87daa9f895ab0012b962322,678 bytesFirst seen Jun 24, 20261 collection

Fields

NameValue
abstractIn 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.
abstractViews1892
approvedDate2019-09-24T13:44:36.626Z
assetFileNameAPSA_2019_Francia_Paranoia.pdf
assetFileSizeBytes246408
assetMimeTypeapplication/pdf
assetUrlhttps://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"]
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contentTypeWorking Paper
contentTypeId5ce663395846762193c9c430
doi10.33774/apsa-2019-p6gq5
doiUrlhttps://doi.org/10.33774/apsa-2019-p6gq5
engageUrlhttps://www.cambridge.org/engage/coe/article-details/5d87daa9f895ab0012b96232
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keywords["fake news","misinformation","paranoia","political knowledge"]
licenseId5cc9d9bf7d4e0000ac04ef27
publishedDate2019-09-24T13:44:36.641Z
statusPUBLISHED
statusDate2019-09-24T13:44:36.641Z
subjectId5e68cb1bd1f19d49ce3ac752
submittedDate2019-09-23T20:44:17.293Z
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titleThe Paranoid Style and the Rise of Fake News in American Politics
version1
vornull
webLinks[]

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Appears in 1 collection

cambridge-up/open-engage1 version · Jun 24, 2026

Full hash:e7e5257b13f92f438c7221a2208aa134556c33814fd61e8215b0ecb66f1f9f00