Survey data on COVID-19-related fake news sharing on Facebook

TL;DR

This paper presents survey data on factors influencing sharing of fake news about COVID-19 on Facebook, collected from users in Brazil.

Contribution

The study provides a dataset linking self-reported fake news sharing with trust, literacy, and motivation factors during a global health crisis.

Findings

The dataset includes 338 valid responses with measures of fake news sharing and digital literacy.

Demographic and behavioral data are provided for analysis of trust in unreliable sources during a crisis.

Abstract

This data article describes the dataset derived from a survey investigating the factors associated with sharing fake news about COVID-19 on Facebook. The dataset comprises 338 valid responses collected between November 29, 2022, and January 17, 2023, primarily from users in Brazil. The questionnaire remained open until May 3, 2024, receiving 55 additional valid responses, which are provided as an additional resource. The data includes individual self-reported measures for Fake News Sharing (FNS), Trust (TR) in information on Facebook, Literacy Skills (LS), and Motivation of Friends to Share Information (MFSI) (including intrinsic and extrinsic constructs), alongside key demographic information such as age, gender, and education level. This resource is valuable for researchers in computational social science, crisis communication, and public health, as it enables quantitative and qualitative analysis of user behavior related to fake news, the role of self-assessed digital literacy, and the predictors of trust in unreliable sources during a global health crisis