New Study Finds Over Half The French Believe Putin’s Ukraine Motives

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A study of 2,007 French people has found that 52 percent of them believe at least one of Russia’s motives for invading Ukraine.

The study, conducted by IFOP on behalf of the Reboot Foundation, was set up to research and advocate for more critical thinking education.

It showed that 10 percent believe Russia is aiming to get rid of Nazism in Ukraine, 22 percent believe war is justified in the name of Russian security and that 23 percent believe the war is supported by Russian speaking Ukrainians who have been the victims of “discrimination by Ukrainian authorities”.

The Express reports: The study also found the recent EU decision to ban Russian media such as RT and Sputnik on the grounds they were used to spread Russian propaganda is disapproved of by 34 percent of French people. People either on the far left or the far right of the political spectrum were also more likely to be susceptible to misinformation, the study found. Helen Lee Bouygues, president of the Reboot Foundation, told Express.co.uk why people fall for misinformation, stating that it has a lot to do with social media use.

She said: “We did the study in relation to social media frequency and found that there was a direct correlation between heavier use of social media and higher susceptibility to Russian misinformation.

“Because social media is so big it just amplifies our susceptibility to misinformation, because social media companies prey on our emotions.

“And when our emotions are preyed on, naturally, we become less rational thinkers.

“There have been psychological studies that show that even those things that don’t sound credible at first if you hear them repeated over and over again you start believing them.”

Ms Lee Bouygues said social media plays into this because, by following people or accounts that you believe to have more credence, an echo chamber is created and you hear single perspectives.

She added that a lot of people who believe misinformation receive their news solely from social media sites rather than verified news sources.

Ms Lee Bouygues said the thing she finds most “surprising” about the study was the overlap between people who believe misinformation about the war in Ukraine and misinformation about Covid vaccinations – with the survey showing 25 percent of French people believe at least one false theory relating to both.

Moreover, the study suggested 16 percent of people believed in conspiracy theories as well as in Russian propaganda and Covid misinformation. 

Additionally, a third of French people admitted they share things online without first reading them or verifying the information.

However, surprisingly, the study showed that 95 percent of people surveyed thought they were good at identifying misinformation.

10 Comments

  1. It baffles me if so many French people are awake how is it possible that Macrone still wins elections? maybe someone must look into who is counting the votes.

    • France is a strange country. It shares many traits with Russia because Russia restaged the French revolution and bought much of the nonsense spewed by the Bolsheviks and French authoritarians.

      • But all that is in the past, How is it relevant today? Russia is less communistic today than most western countries. From the little interactions i have with Russian people on social media i got the impression that in general they are happy with Putin, that prosperity among them seems to be growing certainly not in decline like in most of the western world. In France however its in decline polls showed Le Penn ahead of Macron for a number of years before each election, but on election day she loses and that’s exactly why i question the results of the French elections they
        are not scared to kick somebody to the curb if they are unhappy in the
        direction their country is going.

        • Up ’til now, Le Pen did not resonate with the majority of the country. They are back in basically the same position they were in last Presidential election. The Anti LePen vote will consolidate and keep her out again. When left with the choice of Macron vs Le Pen, Le Pen will lose because the voters will vote for Macron before they will vote for Le Pen.

          France runs some of the most honest elections in the world. They are entirely on paper ballots that must be obtained at the precinct and marked at the precinct with a plain “magic marker.” They are doing what we should be doing.

          • In today’s world I’m not quite sure about anything, i recall somebody saying the following “it does not matter who votes, but what matters is who is counting the votes?”

  2. WAR + or – is still arms sells and weapons proving in a preplanned DMZ as Z&biden arm babys to hide behind as the blood gusts deeper soul less haps in high places FEED

  3. None of those things are true. Once Russia has been expelled from Ukraine, you will see much less Russian spoken there because of Putin’s idiocy. Putin made a move of monumental stupidity – he has forged a Ukrainian nation with far more strength than previously existed.

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