Library:The Spread of True and False News Online
| The Spread of True and False News Online | |
|---|---|
| Author | Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy and Sinan Aral |
| First published | 2018 |
| ISBN | — |
| Role | Analysis |
| Domains | Technology & Media |
| Tactics | Fabrication |
The Spread of True and False News Online is a 2018 study by Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy and Sinan Aral. It appeared in Science 359, no. 6380 (2018).
Summary
Researchers at the MIT Media Lab analyzed about 126,000 rumor cascades on Twitter between 2006 and 2017, shared by around 3 million people, using the verdicts of six independent fact-checking organizations.
Findings
False news spread significantly farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than true news in every category, and most strongly for political news. False stories were about 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than true ones. Automated accounts spread true and false news at similar rates, so the authors concluded that humans, not bots, were mainly responsible for the difference. They suggested that novelty and emotional reactions such as surprise and disgust help explain why falsehoods travel faster.
Relevance to Bullshitopedia
One of the most cited studies in misinformation research and the empirical basis for the idea that falsehood has a built-in advantage online.
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