Misinformation Cascade during the COVID-19 Pandemic
During COVID-19, society has been challenged to not only fight a pandemic, but additionally, a rapidly evolving infodemic. Naturally, when a novel, deadly virus breaks out, anxiety and tension builds up among people who in turn rush to understand this new situation and risk. In turn, medical advice is often whitewashed by unreliable news, theories, and remedies, making it extremely difficult to have a general consensus about further steps in tackling this situation. As Kasisomayajula “Vish” Viswanath stated, “People are hungry for information, hungry for certitude, and when there is a lack of consensus-oriented information and when everything is being contested in public, that creates confusion among people”. Thus an information, or misinformation, cascade emerges.
According to a study led by Riccardo Gallotti and Francesco Valle, both of whom are affiliated with the CoMuNe Lab in Trento, Italy, the pandemic and infodemic factors of COVID-19 coevolve. While the escalation of the pandemic would lead people to closely follow reliable sources, the time to adjust and make this change may limit this possibility. Specifically, the study focused on tweets posted on Twitter and modelled how news is spread across a social network visualized in Figure 1.
It is clear that there is a major issue in regard to misinformation, even more so in contemporary times with social media. In a study conducted by various universities, including Harvard and Northwestern University, surveyors’ acceptance of 11 false assertions that have been circulating through social media throughout the pandemic were assessed. As seen in Figure 2, between 7% and 22% of respondents indicated that they were in fact misinformed. Interestingly enough, the study found that when respondents were divided by age, the highest levels of misinformed people were among people under age 45, most prevalently among people under the age of 25. It is important to note that about 90% of those in the group who are under the age of 25 use social media.
Psychologically, Generation Z have a major “savior complex”, where they “pride [themselves] on being socially progressive and justice oriented…[and] recently social media has turned activism into a display of superiority”. Hence, it is with all the more reason that social media, practically run by this generation, has become a key hub for misinformation. Not only is the generation behind social media extremely young and inexperienced, but also possesses a “savior complex”. It is the very people who want to help by spreading “information” and satisfying their “savior complexes” who make it more difficult to curb COVID-19 and diminish the drastic psychological and implicit effects of the infodemic–hence, an information cascade is triggered.
As discussed in this course, an information cascade refers to the phenomenon when people make the same decision in sequence. One individual must be faced with a binary decision: to believe the information being presented to them in regards to COVID-19 or not. Then, the next people to come can make decisions based off of this individual’s decision. However, as discussed throughout this post, when it comes to COVID-19 and social media, much misinformation is spread, and suddenly, that one individual’s decision to believe the misinformation triggers an extensive spread of false knowledge. In being aware of this, we should now be more careful; COVID-19 is in fact a deadly virus; relying on statistics, numbers, and factual evidence in order to proceed and tackle this virus head on is essential. Information cascades can be very useful, however you must always be on the look out for that one piece of misinformation; who knows, you might just be the next person to ignite a misinformation cascade!
Sources:
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00994-6
http://www.statista.com/statistics/471370/us-adults-who-use-social-networks-age/
http://zenerations.org/2020/12/01/the-youth-can-save-us-but-gen-zs-savior-complex-cant/