Why are we inclined to believe false news?

Recently, the number of fake online news has increased. Some regions have begun to experience the real consequences of the information "throw-in". Take, for example, the last presidential race in the United States. After one of the fake sources let the rumor about the involvement of the leader of the Democratic Party Hillary Clinton in a criminal syndicate and complicity in the sexual slavery of minors, one of the law-abiding citizens took up his gun and decided to deal with the "gossips" independently.

The man broke into one of the pizzerias, whose employees, in his opinion, were engaged in denigrating the good name of the leader of the Democrats, and began to threaten them with reprisals. He wanted to get recognition, but he got to the police station. Fortunately, in this unpleasant episode there were no casualties. However, the incident clearly illustrates the powerful influence that false news can have on people.

Information attack

In fact, it is not at all difficult to create a fake information site, from where the "masses" will be made to the masses. The authors of laziness know perfectly the human psychology. There are always gullible readers who will spread the necessary information further. As you can see, fake news would not be such a problem if all people avoided them. But if you do not want to fall for this informational fishing rod, you need to familiarize yourself with all the inside-out "digital viruses". How is counterfeit news distributed?

People are looking for information that interests them

Some experts are inclined to believe that in the current situation, an extensive information flow is indirectly to blame, which is constantly pouring onto us online. People physically do not have time to track everything happening in the world, so they are interested in information selectively. And then the readers are waiting for the first underwater rock. Positions of various news sites can be diametrically opposed. When a person has already formed his opinion about the problem, one way or another he will begin to seek confirmation of his theory. However, this explains only the concept of searching for political news. What about the rest of the informational "stuffing"?

Inattention to the authority of the source

And here the inexperienced readers are awaited by a second, more powerful underwater rock: they ignore the origin of the source of information. Shayam Sander studied the consumption of online news for two decades and made an astonishing conclusion. It should be noted that only a few experiments were sufficient for this. It turned out that readers do not really care about the authority of the people who broadcast the news. Thus, ignorance of online consumers and generates the prosperity of incompetent sources.

Unconditional trust of fans

Fake news spread on the World Wide Web from its very beginning, but then, in the 80s, they were sent to e-mail users. Now, in the heyday of social media, there is no need to create special secret communities. With a plethora of different online platforms, politicians and show business stars have direct access to millions of their subscribers. Fans believe their idols unconditionally, and they will never check the reliability of information and facts, taking it all at face value. Here we see the third great underwater rock: celebrities are also people, they themselves can get caught on the hook of spreading false information. If you pass this news to the fans, then a viral mail will be launched in the form of millions of reposts.

A study conducted in the 1990s

Our current expert Shayam Sander is an employee of the University of Pennsylvania. In the 90 years, he conducted a curious study, which was part of his thesis. This was the first experiment in the world, in which news sources were used. The volunteers were divided into four groups, each of which showed the same news, but with reference to a different source. In one case, it was supposedly the editors of the sites, in the other - independent sources that the computer chose, in the third - users of the news resource, and in the fourth - other participants whose names were classified.

When volunteers were asked to evaluate the news on reliability, accuracy and objectivity, all participants made equal assessments, regardless of the source. A curious moment was the desire to read articles selected by their colleagues or other users of the news resource. This puzzled the author of the experiment. He believed that people would find more competent editors of news sites, but professionals gave way to the "popularity" of even random selection of machines. Thus, the participants were most inclined to ignore the stories retold by the editors of the sites, and most of all focused on news from ordinary people.

What is the problem of multilayer sources?

When the Internet news comes into play, we are sure that behind them are huge agencies with managers and subordinates. However, the news is reprinted with such speed that you will never have time to track the original. Even in the news feed in your social network, you often see how one of your friends shared a message from the politician referring to other sources. Here we see another underwater rock: which of these resources should be regarded as responsible for filing news? All secondary sources have already managed to eclipse the identity of the source itself. The students of Professor Sander tried to solve this problem. They conducted a preliminary analysis of the competence of news sites. For example, Yahoo News earned them the highest confidence rating, and Drudge Report - the lowest. These sites are known for that they often publish links to articles printed elsewhere.

Conclusions of the study

It turned out that readers pay attention to the name of the source only if the news is really important to them. In all other cases, the authority of the website does not matter. These can be links to friends who posted news about a particular event on Facebook. Man is a social being, he will always be inclined to trust his friends more than the editors of large sites. Thus, our cognitive filters are weakened, and the resources involved in promoting false stories get fertile ground for speculation.

False sense of security

Even more we are inclined to trust information if we encounter it in our personal space (private channels). Thus, when users fill out their profile on the portal page, they are already becoming targets for sending unnecessary information. All this creates a false sense of security, and people stop questioning the credibility of the source, whose "throw-in" appeared in the newsline.