The modus operandi of fake news in Group Psychology

Abstract

The recent phenomenon of fake news has become increasingly present in social communication networks, especially on the internet, through its social platforms. Being considered false news, intentionally created with the intent of deceiving the recipients of its contents, sometimes with marketing intent and other times with political purposes, little was discussed about the conditions that contribute to their success. In this sense, the objective of this article is to resort to Freud’s work entitled “Group Psychology” to understand fake news as a mass phenomenon, therefore, admissible of belief by the individual inserted in the collective soul of the crowds. As a result, it was possible to understand the psychological aspects that involve individuals in the masses and that justify the renunciation of critical behavior in the face of the fallacious narratives of fake news. This collective soul assumes as truth a narrative that corresponds only to the needs of meaning and coherence in relation to its desires, sacrificing objective and factual evidence of reality. Additionally, it corroborates the construction of a reality that justifies the misleading prophecy launched by fake news. Indeed, the work sought to contribute to the identification of the aspects that contribute to the success of fake news and its form of social operation, offering subsidies to combat this phenomenon and undermine its destructive potential in society. Knowing the conditions and the form of action of fake news, opens a way for its prevention and early treatment