| Abstract: |
The volume of fake news in the digital media landscape is increasing, creating
a new threat to organizations' reputations. At the same time, individuals are
more aware of the existence of fake news. It thus remains unclear how fake
news affects evaluators' reputation judgments. In this article, we draw on the
distinction between first-order judgments (i.e., an individual evaluator's
reputation judgment) and second-order judgments (i.e., an individual
evaluator's belief about the reputation judgments of other evaluators). We
integrate this distinction with insights from communication research and
social psychology to theorize how fake news affects reputation judgments and
behavioral intentions. Through three experimental studies, we show that the
negative effect of fake news is larger for second-order reputation judgments
and that this effect is greater for organizations with a positive reputation.
Furthermore, our results indicate that although fake news has a smaller effect
on first-order judgments, the latter adapt to second-order judgments and
thereby affect behavioral intentions. This article contributes, first, to the
micro-cognitive perspective on reputation formation by taking the first step
in developing a comprehensive understanding of the intricate impact of fake
news on reputation and behavioral intentions. Second, this article contributes
to our understanding of the role of a good prior reputation as a buffer or a
burden. |