The influence of personality and selected media on the perception of the Covid-19 pandemic

The subject of this diploma thesis is the issue of spreading false reports about the disease COVID-19. The work aims to map the relationship between personality traits, political orientation, used sources of information, and susceptibility to conspiracy theories in the Slovak Republic with the help of quantitative research, specifically a questionnaire survey. The theoretical part of the thesis explains the key concepts, concepts related to false reports, their characteristics and dissemination practices. Following the set goals, it presents psychological factors that influence the spread of false information, justifies the tendency of a large part of the population to trust false reports, and presents the concepts of a five-factor model of personality and cognitive reflection testing. The practical part of the work is devoted to research, the aim of which was to present the factors influencing the tendency to consider false reports about the disease COVID-19 to be credible. Greater attention has been paid to the influence of individuals' personalities on their attitudes to pandemics. The data collected in the form of a questionnaire survey suggest that personality characteristics do not have a significant effect on the tendency to believe in false reports. However, research suggests that..