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María grabs her phone and finds a bunch of notifications. After checking her pending Instagram stories, she enters the family WhatsApp group. What a surprise, her grandfather has shared several links, a meme about the upcoming variants of Covid-19, and another one about who is behind the new trend of “healthy” food. Her older sister, a vegan out of environmental conviction, has gone out to debunk that conspiracy surrounding healthy food. She asks her grandfather to read it twice before sharing next time, and especially to pay attention to who is publishing it. Just then, Aunt Ana replies, saying that thank goodness someone is speaking loudly and clearly about the low effectiveness of vaccines if more variants are coming. Aunt Ana wraps up the matter by saying that she will post the link on her wall and in the anti-vaccine group she has on Facebook.

Cousin Miguel, the oldest of all, posts a laughing emoji and plans to share the meme with his friends for a good laugh. The other 20 family members in the group have not spoken up, although, like María, they have all seen it. Each one has their own perspective, and we are the ones spreading disinformation, María thinks as she places her phone back on the table.

What has happened in the family WhatsApp group may have made you think that something similar occurs in yours. This is not a coincidence, as we react differently to the same content depending on our age, gender, values, and a multitude of other factors. Given that social media is the primary vehicle for disinformation today, it is essential to understand why we share what we share. Many elements intersect here: from how our brains function to how much we trust people, to how beneficial it is for us to believe what we are seeing.

The question is what individual and social factors make us susceptible to disinformation. Various studies in social psychology and sociology have focused precisely on understanding how we digest content (whether true or false). Age is crucial, as people over 65 are the most concerned about disinformation and are also the most susceptible to it. More than the year of birth, this relates to the education received, as well as a lack of basic skills such as digital and/or media literacy.

As for gender, it varies significantly depending on the topics, but some studies indicate that men tend to consume more false news, especially when it relates to political disinformation (Goyanes & Lavin, 2018), with a particular incidence among more conservative viewpoints (Roozenbeek et al., 2020).

Previous beliefs play a very important role because, when faced with headlines that express something we think, it becomes harder for us to adopt a critical perspective (this is known as confirmation bias). Even if we see it while browsing social media and there’s a warning indicating that the content may be fraudulent, we tend to trust our convictions more. This is more common, in fact, among people with higher education because their level of self-confidence is even greater.

Various studies confirm that being in vulnerable situations—whether economic, personal, educational, or psychological—increases susceptibility, as well as among individuals belonging to marginalized groups. Intersectionality is fundamental to understanding how disinformation affects different people. In fact, less advantaged situations are associated with lower levels of trust in the system (whether it be government, media, institutions, or science) (Roozenbeek et al., 2020), while also exhibiting a greater tendency to believe in conspiracy theories or alternative views (Freeman et al., 2020; Plohl & Musil, 2021; van Prooijen et al., 2018).

There’s a difference between receiving disinformation and circulating it. It is estimated that 80% of online disinformation is shared by only 1% to 10% of users (Goyanes & Lavin, 2018). But what makes us complicit in disinformation? How much do we share and why? The first curiosity is that the longer we spend browsing, the more we share. And if we are in a hurry, we share more too. We do this to inform people we care about regarding topics we find relevant. This provides a boost of recognition and social validation, reinforces our bonds, and helps combat the fear of being left out (Baccarella et al., 2018; Talwar et al., 2019).

In short, how we relate to information is closely tied to our social conditions and our sense of belonging. Receiving and sharing disinformation has more emotional than rational explanations. In fact, the information circulating out there acts like a mirror: we can’t see everything, so we focus on what catches our attention. Generally because it tells us something we would like to think, feel, or believe. Perhaps the proverbial version for complicit individuals in disinformation should be: “Tell me what you share, and I will tell you who you are.”