The Role of User's Native Language in Mis/Disinformation Detection: The Case of English

This paper investigates the role of English as the native language in the fake news recognition of humans. After social media users were grouped into native and non-native English speakers, news headlines were extracted from independent fact-checking agencies and presented for user evaluation. The results revealed that, on average, native English speakers performed slightly better compared to their counterparts in discerning factual from deceptive content. Furthermore, non-native speakers appear to doubt the legitimacy of textual factual and deceptive content more than their counterparts. Native English speakers, on the other hand, appear to doubt content presented with supporting visuals. The intended target audience of this paper are information scientists, digital forensic professionals, communication experts, policymakers, and other scholars possibly seeking references on this dimension.