Fake News and Anxiety: How Unverified Information Makes Us Panic

Why does fake news trigger panic so quickly? Learn how unverified information feeds anxiety and how to stay calm before you share a worrying message.

Your phone buzzes during dinner. A voice message has landed in the family group: "My friend's husband works at the council, they're expecting a big earthquake tonight, don't tell anyone." Within minutes the same recording is circulating in your neighbours' group and in messages from colleagues. Your heart starts racing, you line the children's shoes up by the door, and you lie awake all night. By morning there has been no earthquake and no such warning. Yet the tiredness, the unease and the question "What will I do next time?" remain. Fake news is not just information pollution; it is an anxiety trigger that puts your body and mind on alert as if a real danger were present. In this article we look at why unverified information panics us so easily and how to step out of that cycle.

What Is Fake News and Why Does It Spread So Fast?

Fake news is information that is presented as true but whose accuracy has not been proven, or which has been deliberately distorted. Sometimes it is produced on purpose: to get clicks, to steer people in a particular direction or to commit fraud. Sometimes it grows without any ill intent at all, with the thought "I'm just passing on what I heard". The second kind is often more powerful, because it is sent to us by someone we trust.

There are several psychological reasons why unverified information spreads so quickly:

• Fear grabs attention. The human mind gives priority to information that contains a threat. A sentence like "It was a calm day" draws nobody's attention, whereas "Apparently there'll be no flour in the shops tomorrow" gets noticed straight away.
• Information from close by is more convincing. A message that begins "My cousin's doctor friend said" seems more reliable than an anonymous website; yet the longer the chain, the more the information is distorted.
• Sharing feels like protecting. We want to warn the people we love. The thought "What if it's true and I didn't say anything?" is the most common feeling behind forwarding without checking.
• Uncertainty leaves a gap. When an official statement is delayed or information arrives in fragments, the mind tends to fill that gap with the worst-case scenario.

How Does Fake News Trigger Anxiety?

Anxiety is the brain's way of preparing for a possible danger. When we receive a warning, the body responds within seconds: the pulse rises, the muscles tense, attention narrows. In a real emergency this system saves lives. The problem is that the body cannot tell whether the danger is real or just a screenshot. A false warning rings the same alarm.

There are three distinct ways in which fake news amplifies anxiety:

Repetition creates believability. When we hear the same claim from three or four different people, it starts to feel truer, even if the source is the same. The mind confuses familiarity with accuracy.

Corrections do not spread as far as the original story. While the panic-inducing message reaches ten groups, the message "That story wasn't true" often reaches only one or two people. So the anxiety is switched on but never switched off.

It erodes the sense of trust. As we notice how often we are misled, we can reach the point of "I can't believe anything any more". This leads us to approach even accurate information with suspicion and to stay constantly on guard. When a person has to both take every news item seriously and filter it with suspicion, they become mentally exhausted.

Let's say that in the period after an earthquake a rumour spreads in a neighbourhood: "The building is unsound, it's going to be sealed off this week." In the two days before the council makes a statement, everyone living in that building may go without sleep, children may become unsettled and tension may break out between neighbours. Even if the information eventually proves false, the weight of those two days leaves its mark on the body and on relationships.

What Are the Signs of News-Related Anxiety?

Feeling uneasy in the face of unverified information is an entirely human reaction. However, some signs may indicate that the news has started to dictate your mood. We would remind you that these signs do not, on their own, amount to a diagnosis.

Mental and emotional signs

• Turning every warning you hear over in your mind for days with the question "What if it's true?"
• Being unable to relax even after a story turns out to be false
• Tiredness and helplessness that come from not knowing what to believe
• Being constantly on alert, jumping to check the slightest notification

Physical signs

• Your stomach clenching or your heart racing when you hear a message tone
• Difficulty falling asleep after reading the news
• Tension in the shoulders and neck, headaches

Behavioural signs

• Searching for the same topic across different apps for hours
• Changing plans on the basis of a rumour: keeping your child home from school, withdrawing money from the bank, stockpiling
• Frequently calling loved ones to ask whether they are safe
• Or the opposite: cutting yourself off from all news completely because you cannot cope with the anxiety

Why are some people affected more?

Of two people who receive the same message, one may shrug it off while the other cannot sleep all night. This difference has nothing to do with weakness; it relates to past experience and the load a person is carrying at that moment. People who have previously lived through a disaster, a loss or a sudden economic shock react faster to messages that evoke a similar danger. Those who are generally prone to anxiety, those responsible for young children or a relative who needs care, and those who live alone and cannot talk the information through with anyone may also be more vulnerable. Tiredness and lack of sleep, meanwhile, reduce everyone's capacity for critical thinking; a message read at midnight feels far more frightening than the same message read in the morning.

We have discussed the effect of constant scrolling and news-following on mood in detail in our article on news fatigue.

Common Forms of Unverified Information in Turkey

Every society has its own fears, and rumours are usually built on top of those fears. Some of the examples frequently encountered in Turkey are:

• Earthquake predictions: Claims along the lines of "this fault will rupture on this date" became especially widespread after the 6 February 2023 earthquakes. Knowing that the day and time of an earthquake cannot be scientifically predicted reduces the power of these claims.
• Panic messages about the economy: Warnings such as "The exchange rate will shoot up on Monday" or "The banks are going to freeze accounts" can push families who are already strained by the high cost of living into sudden decisions.
• Missing child or abduction claims: Voice recordings about a white minibus or an unknown person can leave parents uneasy for days. Messages of this kind, with no date or place, can come back into circulation even years later.
• Health claims: Messages such as "Apparently this food causes cancer" or "That vaccine supposedly causes infertility" are particularly hard on people who live with health anxiety.
• Fabricated audio and video: With advancing technology, videos that put words into the mouths of well-known people that they never actually said are also becoming more common.

Most of these messages circulate in family and neighbourhood groups. You can find suggestions on the tensions that family group communication creates in our article on the WhatsApp family group.

Practical Steps for Staying Calm in the Face of Fake News

The aim is not to turn into a weary detective who views every piece of information with suspicion, but to put a small gap between deciding in a panic and responding thoughtfully. The steps below can help you create that gap.

1. Slow your body down first

When you receive a frightening message, the first job is not to research but to slow your breathing. Put the phone down for a few minutes, feel your feet on the floor and breathe out slowly a few times. Research done while in a state of alarm usually ends with finding information that confirms the anxiety.

2. Ask yourself four questions

• Who did this information come from? Is there a source with a name or an institution?
• Are a date and a place given?
• Is an official body saying the same thing?
• Is the message pressing me to hurry? ("Share now", "Watch before it's deleted")

A sense of urgency and an emphasis on secrecy ("don't tell anyone, but...") are the most typical signs of unverified information.

3. Wait before you share

You might set yourself a rule: I won't forward any warning I can't verify within the first hour. If there is a real danger, official bodies will have made a statement within that time. This rule protects both you and the people who would receive the message.

4. Identify official and primary sources

Decide on a few reliable sources in advance, such as AFAD (Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority) and the Kandilli Observatory for disasters, the Ministry of Health and your own doctor for health, and statements from the municipality and governor's office for local matters. Knowing in advance which source to check in a crisis reduces both the time spent searching and the anxiety.

5. Put a time frame on your news consumption

Reading the news twice a day, at set times and for a limited period, is less wearing than being exposed to fragments of information all day long. Keeping the hour before bed news-free protects your sleep.

6. Practise tolerating uncertainty

At the heart of anxiety lies the need to "know for certain". Yet on many subjects certain information does not arrive straight away. Telling yourself "I don't know right now, and there are still things I can do in this situation" may feel artificial at first; with repetition, the mind learns to sit a little more comfortably with uncertainty.

7. Correct your loved ones without blaming them

Correcting a false message sent by your mother or a relative in front of everyone can cause hurt feelings. Saying in a private message, "I was really frightened when I saw it too, I looked into it but couldn't find any official statement", both protects the relationship and slows the spread of the information.

8. Set limits on conversations about the news, too

Even once you have stopped reading the news, the anxiety can come back through conversation. The same rumour being discussed again and again over a tea break, at dinner or on the phone keeps the mind on alert. You can make a small agreement at home: no talk of current affairs at the dinner table or in front of the children, or nobody forwards news to anyone after nine in the evening. This is not ignoring real problems; it is protecting the mental energy you will need for them.

Pausing and waiting before you share a story is not giving up on protecting the people you love; it is also a way of protecting them from unnecessary fear.

When Should You Seek Professional Support?

During periods of intense news, it is to be expected that you might feel uneasy for a few days, sleep more fitfully or check the news more often. However, talking to a mental health professional may be helpful in the following situations:

• If your sleep has been disrupted for weeks because of the news
• If anxiety is clearly preventing you from concentrating on your work, school or relationships
• If you are experiencing palpitations, shortness of breath or sudden attacks of fear
• If you frequently make sudden, financially damaging decisions on the basis of a rumour
• If the news repeatedly brings back a disaster or loss you experienced in the past
• If you have reached the point of withdrawing from the world completely and not leaving the house

If you are experiencing intense anxiety or panic symptoms, you can find out more about support in the area of anxiety and panic.

How Is News-Related Anxiety Addressed in Therapy?

Therapy does not remove the uncertainty in the world; but it can change the way you relate to that uncertainty.

In the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) approach, the thoughts that trigger the anxiety are first identified: "If I don't check, something will happen to us", "The worst is going to happen". The evidence for these thoughts is examined together, and the difference between something being possible and something being likely is discussed.

Reassurance-seeking behaviours are addressed. Constantly checking, calling and asking bring relief in the short term but feed anxiety in the long term. In therapy these behaviours are reduced step by step.

Work is done on tolerating uncertainty. Through small, safe experiences, the feeling that "I can live without knowing" is strengthened.

The influence of past experiences is taken into account. For example, the reaction of someone who has lived through an earthquake to earthquake rumours may be linked to a traumatic memory coming back to life. In that case, trauma-sensitive work is planned.

Living in line with your values comes onto the agenda. Some of the time spent following the news is won back for the relationships and activities that do the person good.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why am I still anxious even though I've found out a story was false?

Once the body has gone into alarm mode, it takes time to calm down. In addition, the mind does not easily let go of information it has once paired with fear. Slowing the body down with your breath and turning your attention to another activity can shorten this transition period.

My elderly parents keep sending unverified messages; what can I do?

Talking about the messages without mocking, in private and in a calm tone is usually more effective. Agreeing together on a few official sources they can trust, and saying "If there's something you're not sure about, call me first", can help.

Will not watching the news at all solve the anxiety?

Cutting off completely can bring relief in the short term; however, most people come back after a while with the worry "Am I missing something?" A news routine that is limited, planned and fed by reliable sources is generally more sustainable.

My child is telling me about a frightening rumour they heard at school; how should I talk about it?

First, listen to what they heard and how they feel. Then, in short, calm language suited to their age, explain what is known and what is not, and give them concrete information that helps them feel safe. If their fear continues for a long time, support from a professional is available.

• #fake news
• #misinformation
• #news anxiety
• #uncertainty
• #social media

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Eda Erkan Alapala

Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.

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