Abstract

This study conceptualizes fake news as a complex socio-psychological phenomenon that intersects individual psychological processes and broader social structures. Departing from existing research that focuses primarily on internal factors such as confirmation bias and emotional responses, it adopts an integrative approach that examines the psychological mechanisms behind the reception and spread of fake news across cognitive, emotional, behavioral, group, and structural dimensions. Grounded in critical psychology and community psychology, the study analyzes how power relations and social contexts shape misinformation and explores psychology’s role in addressing it. These two perspectives-critical psychology’s focus on macro-level power and community psychology’s emphasis on local interaction-are viewed as complementary, offering a framework for expanding psychology’s public engagement. Based on this integration, the study outlines practical directions for intervention and argues that psychology must evolve beyond individual healing to contribute to collective recovery and structural change, with attention to diverse socio-cultural contexts.