Information Cascades and the Spread of “Fake News”
New study explains why fake news is perceived as real on Twitter
According to a new study published in the journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a high number of retweets on a Twitter post serves as a “normative cue” which indicates to users that the message is both trustworthy and worthy of sharing. Frequently retweeted tweets are more trusted by the Twitter population and are often regarded as reliable “news” sources, regardless of the credibility of the information that is being shared. In the study, researchers presented over 600 participants with a series of tweets and were asked to evaluate the accuracy of each one. The overwhelming majority of participants referred to the number of retweets for each post to evaluate the information’s credibility. A high number of retweets indicated to participants that the tweet was credible and also drove them to share it with their followers.
The findings in this study reinforce the “information cascade” theory that we discussed in class. An information cascade occurs when one participant observes someone else behaving in a certain way and decides to act in the same way, regardless of their initial intentions to do (or not to do) so. This study demonstrates the dangers of information cascade because such groupthink mentalities can result in the viral spread of false information or “fake news.” Once a certain threshold is passed within the information cascade, the danger of spreading fake news grows and the process accelerates. In contexts such as the 2016 presidential election, fake news shared by users on social media were more frequently shared, liked, and commentated than accurate reports made by serious media sources.
The article recommends readers to use their critical thinking and research skills to evaluate the information that they view on social media to combat the spread of fake news. The author also reminds readers to “avoid equating popularity with plausibility.”