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How Misinformation Multiplies By Exploiting Outrage
If you’ve paid any attention to modern social challenges over the last decade, you’ve probably come across the growing problem of misinformation online. Maybe you’ve even seen fishy stories appearing in your social media feeds.
It’s not that lies have never been a problem in the news before. Misinformation campaigns, dishonest propaganda, and distorted news stories have been a problem throughout human history. The only difference today is how easily that misinformation can be created and spread around the world.
For many examples of misinformation, a primary objective for the creator is to emotionally manipulate their audience, because emotions can be highly effective at motivating action. You don’t need to pay a marketing guru to help you spread the word about your latest initiative if you can provoke people into spreading it themselves.
For a politician, this might involve a smear campaign against an opponent, while for bad actors at their computers, it might simply involve making money from creating harmful viral content. In both cases, there is an attempt to get into the head of the person reading the headlines to emotionally nudge them toward interacting with and sharing your message.
A new study has examined one of the key emotional responses that misinformation will target…
