With educational content on social media getting more and more popular, we often see information presented as “facts.” And while most of us are aware of the fact that every bit of information on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt, or rather a whole bag of it, often we fall into the trap of misinformation.
But why does it happen? Why are people so vulnerable to fake news and misinformation? Researchers suggest that confirmation bias may be to blame. Confirmation bias refers to our tendency to seek out information which confirms things that we either already know or that we believe to be true.
No wonder we are much more likely to believe “facts” that conform to our beliefs. In the same way, we may be tempted to turn a blind eye to facts that contradict our beliefs. Fake news seem to be using confirmation bias to its advantage.
It’s also important to note that social media is a breeding ground for the spread of fake news. A study from Stanford University found that 41.8 visits to fake news websites came from social media, compared to just 10.1 percent of social referrals going to top news sites on average.
“Fake news spreads so quickly due to factors that concern both the content of the messages and the technological foundation of platforms on which the news is proliferated,” Daniel Markuson, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN, told Bored Panda.
“Fake news usually relates to current affairs and makes remarkable, emotion-inducing claims. This, combined with the fact that social media platforms collect data on what kind of posts users spend the most time on and feed them content with similar characteristics, provides the perfect conditions for the spread of misinformation,” he explained.
You probably have heard of claims that fake news spreads faster than real news. We asked Daniel if that’s true. “It depends on the quality of real news. Fake news tends to sound shocking, so naturally, people show more interest in it. However, if the real news is shocking or important enough to many people, it can spread as quickly as fake news,” he said.
When talking about fake news and misinformation, it’s important to note the role bots play in its spread. Daniel explained that bots are autonomous programs that are used to perform certain actions online without human interaction.
“Fake news is typically spread by malicious parties, which can develop bots to spread fake news. That is done to spread fake information more effectively by eliminating the problem of limited human resources,” the cybersecurity expert concluded.
