Thursday, August 18, 2022
  • Login
CEO North America
  • Home
  • Business
    • Entrepreneur
    • Industry
    • Innovation
    • Management & Leadership
  • CEO Interviews
  • CEO Life
    • Art & Culture
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
    • Environment
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Multimedia
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
    • Entrepreneur
    • Industry
    • Innovation
    • Management & Leadership
  • CEO Interviews
  • CEO Life
    • Art & Culture
    • Food
    • Health
    • Travel
    • Environment
  • Opinion
  • News
  • Multimedia
No Result
View All Result
CEO North America
No Result
View All Result

The enduring appeal of fake news

in Opinion
- the enduring appeal of fake news
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Research project finds humans, not robots, are primarily responsible for the spread of misleading information.

“As the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest liar has his believers.

And it often happens, that if a lie be believ´d only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it has done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it.

Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it; so that when men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect.”

The above quote was written by the poet and satirist Jonathan Swift in the British journal The Examiner in 1710, but it could arguably also apply to the deeply unpopular but oft-shared fake news articles we find in our social media feeds today.

Lies and half-truths have been around since the dawn of humankind. Honesty may well be the best policy, but scheming and dishonesty are part of what makes us human beings.

Two centuries after Swift wrote the above passage, methods for spreading such lies are much improved. In the first academic paper of its kind, published in Science magazine on March 8, MIT Media Lab researcher Soroush Vosoughi and his colleagues present evidence that, on Twitter at least, false stories travel both faster and further than true ones.

The study showed this by examining every tweet sent between 2006 and 2017. “We found that falsehood di uses significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth, in all categories of information, and in many cases by an order of magnitude,” says Sinan Aral, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a paper detailing the findings.

The researchers used statistical models to classify tweets as false or true by applying data taken from six independent fact-checking organizations. This allowed them to categorize some 4.5 million tweets concerning 126,000 different news stories which were then ranked according to the way they spread among Twitter users.

The results were startling. True news stories took, on average, six times longer than fake ones to reach an audience of at least 1,500 people. Only about 0.1 percent of true stories were shared by more than 1,000 people, but 1 percent of false stories were shared up to between 1,000 and 100,000 times.

The reason false information spreads faster and further than the real thing is simple, say the researchers. News spreads across social networks according to its appeal to users, rather than its veracity. One way to make news appealing, for example, is to make it novel. Sure enough, when
the researchers checked
how novel a tweet was (by
comparing it statistically with
other tweets), they found false tweets were significantly more eye-catching than truthful ones.

Fake stories were also more likely to inspire emotions such as fear, disgust and surprise, whereas genuine ones provoked anticipation, joy, or trust, leading to the rather depressing conclusion that people prefer to share stories that generate strong negative reactions. Perhaps not coincidentally, fake political news was the most likely to go viral.

The researchers could conduct a study of the depth of the problem thanks to the business relationship between one of the members of their team, Deb Roy, and Twitter, which offered the researchers access to its entire historical dataset at a steep discount. But further studies are likely to follow in the coming years as tech companies, notably social media firms, face an ongoing backlash from both consumers and regulators worried about the harm caused by their networks.

The lesson for now, according to Roy, is that even well-meaning Twitter users might take heed in the phrase: “Think before you retweet.”

Tags: Chief Executive OfficerDonald TrumpFake newsPrinted version

Related Posts

How the ceo’s leadership in digital transformation can tip the scales toward success
Opinion

How the CEO’s leadership in digital transformation can tip the scales toward success

Automaker ceos urge congress to lift ev tax credit cap
Opinion

Mobility in the eye of the storm

Beyond “agree to disagree”: why leaders need to foster a culture of productive disagreement and debate
Management & Leadership

Beyond “agree to disagree”: why leaders need to foster a culture of productive disagreement and debate

A new globalization calculus
Opinion

A new globalization calculus

The chips act: what it means for the semiconductor ecosystem
Opinion

The CHIPS Act: What it means for the semiconductor ecosystem

Beyond the ‘lamppost theory’ of economic policy
Opinion

Beyond the ‘lamppost theory’ of economic policy

Should airbnb and amazon hoard information to maximize revenue?
Opinion

In a tight labor market, remote work makes inroads

From tailwinds to turbulence
Business

From tailwinds to turbulence

The wild west of renewables: accounting for energy tax credits
Opinion

The wild west of renewables: accounting for energy tax credits

Developing a digital mindset
Innovation

Thinking about investing in the metaverse? Let history be your guide

No Result
View All Result

Recent Posts

  • U.S. existing home sales fall for sixth straight month
  • U.S. streaming overtakes cable TV viewing for the first time
  • Why people and AI make good business partners / TED
  • How the CEO’s leadership in digital transformation can tip the scales toward success
  • Retail sales flat in July amid fall in gas prices

Recent Comments

    Archives

    Categories

    • Art & Culture
    • Business
    • CEO Interviews
    • CEO Life
    • Editor´s Choice
    • Entrepreneur
    • Environment
    • Food
    • Health
    • Highlights
    • Industry
    • Innovation
    • Issues
    • Management & Leadership
    • Multimedia
    • News
    • Opinion
    • PrimeZone
    • Printed Version
    • Travel
    • Uncategorized

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org

    CEO Latin America | ES

    • CONTACT
    • GENERAL ENQUIRIES
    • ADVERTISING
    • MEDIA KIT
    • DIRECTORY
    • TERMS AND CONDITIONS

    Editorials – george.hatfield@ceo-na.com
    Editor-in-Chief - paul.imison@ceo-na.com
    Advertising – media@ceo-na.com

    AUSTIN

    600, Congress Avenue
    14th Floor
    Austin, TX.
    78701
    USA
    +1 512 649 0340

    NEW YORK

    110 Wall St.,
    3rd Floor
    New York, NY.
    10005
    USA
    +1 212 432 5800

    CEO Latin America | ES

    • CONTACT
    • GENERAL ENQUIRIES
    • ADVERTISING
    • MEDIA KIT
    • DIRECTORY
    • TERMS AND CONDITIONS

    Editorials –
    george.hatfield@ceo-na.com
    Editor-in-Chief -
    paul.imison@ceo-na.com
    Advertising –
    media@ceo-na.com

    AUSTIN

    600, Congress Avenue
    14th Floor
    Austin, TX.
    78701
    USA
    +1 512 649 0340

    NEW YORK

    110 Wall St.,
    3rd Floor
    New York, NY.
    10005
    USA
    +1 212 432 5800

    CEO North America © 2022 - Sitemap

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • Business
      • Entrepreneur
      • Industry
      • Innovation
      • Management & Leadership
    • CEO Interviews
    • CEO Life
      • Art & Culture
      • Food
      • Health
      • Travel
      • Environment
    • Opinion
    • News
    • Multimedia

    © 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In
    Are you sure want to unlock this post?
    Unlock left : 0
    Are you sure want to cancel subscription?