THE SPREAD

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As digital media becomes more and more prominent, the spread of misinformation or falsehoods are rapid and rampant. False information is known to spread lies faster and can possibly have an impact on political, economic and the social well being of the other around us. Misinformation tends to be spread more often than factual information. In a study conducted by Vosoughi et al., the results found that rumors that were shared on Twitter between 2006 and 2017. False rumors were shared 100,000 times more than the compared 1,000 shares for truthful information. The degree of novelty, excitement and reactions of the viewers is suspected to be the reason for the difference. The studies found that false information on Twitter diffused significantly faster, further, and deeper. Vosoughi et al. states

"...the effects were more pronounced for false political news than for false news about terrorism, natural disasters, science, urban legends, or financial information. We found that false news was more novel than true news, which suggests that people were more likely to share novel information. Whereas false stories inspired fear, disgust, and surprise in replies, true stories inspired anticipation, sadness, joy, and trust. Contrary to conventional wisdom, robots accelerated the spread of true and false news at the same rate, implying that false news spreads more than the truth because humans, not robots, are more likely to spread it."

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