A USC study reveals the key reason why fake news spreads on social networks
Summary Why do people share misinformation on social media? In this research (N = 2,476), we show that the online sharing structure embedded in social platforms is more important than individual deficits in critical reasoning and partisan bias, commonly cited factors of misinformation. Due to reward -based learning systems on social media, users develop habits of sharing information that attracts the attention of others. Once habits are formed, information sharing is automatically triggered by signals on the platform without users considering the results of the response, such as the spread of misinformation. As a result of user habits, 30-40% of fake news shared in our research was from the top 15% of users. Suggesting that sharing fake news is part of a broader pattern of response established by social media platforms, regular users also shared information that challenged their own political beliefs. Finally, we show that sharing fake news is not an inevitable consequence of users’ habits: social media sites could be restructured to create habits for sharing accurate information. |
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The USC-led study of more than 2,400 Facebook users suggests that platforms, rather than individual users, have a larger role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation online.
USC researchers may have found the biggest influencing factor in the spread of fake news: social platforms’ structure of rewarding users for habitually sharing information.
The team’s findings, published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , reverse popular misconceptions that misinformation spreads because users lack the critical thinking skills necessary to discern truth from falsehood or because their Strong political beliefs distort your judgment.
Only the 15% of the most frequent news users in the research were responsible for spreading between 30% and 40% of fake news.
The research team from the USC Marshall School of Business and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences asked: What motivates these users? It turns out that, like any video game, social media has a reward system that encourages users to stay on their accounts and keep posting and sharing. Users who frequently post and share, especially sensational and eye-catching information, are likely to attract attention.
“Due to reward-based learning systems on social media, users form habits of sharing information that garners recognition from others,” the researchers wrote. “Once habits are formed, information sharing is automatically triggered by signals on the platform without users considering critical response outcomes, such as the spread of misinformation.”
Posting, sharing and interacting with others on social media can, therefore, become a habit.
“Our findings show that misinformation does not spread through a deficit of users. It’s really a function of the structure of the social media sites themselves,” said Wendy Wood, a habits expert and professor emeritus of psychology and business at USC.
“The habits of social media users are a greater driver of the spread of misinformation than individual attributes. “We know from previous research that some people do not process information critically and others form opinions based on political biases, which also affects their ability to recognize false stories online,” said Gizem Ceylan, who led the study during his PhD at USC. Marshall. and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale School of Management. “However, we show that the reward structure of social media platforms plays a larger role when it comes to the spread of misinformation.”
In a novel approach, Ceylan and his co-authors sought to understand how the reward structure of social media sites drives users to develop habits of posting misinformation on social media.
Why fake news spreads: behind the social network
Overall, the study involved 2,476 active Facebook users ages 18 to 89 who volunteered in response to online advertising to participate. They were compensated for completing a “decision-making” survey approximately seven minutes long.
Surprisingly, researchers found that users’ social media habits doubled and, in some cases, tripled the amount of fake news they shared. Their habits were more influential in sharing fake news than other factors, including political beliefs and lack of critical reasoning.
Frequent and regular users forward six times more fake news than casual or new users.
"This type of behavior has been rewarded in the past by algorithms that prioritize engagement when selecting which posts users see in their news feeds, and by the structure and design of the sites themselves," said second author Ian A. Anderson, behavioral scientist. and PhD candidate at USC Dornsife. “Understanding the dynamics behind the spread of misinformation is important given its political, social and health consequences.”
Experiment with different scenarios to see why fake news spreads
In the first experiment, the researchers found that regular social media users share true and false news.
In another experiment, researchers found that habitual sharing of misinformation is part of a broader pattern of insensitivity to the information being shared. In fact, regular users shared politically discordant news (news that challenged their political beliefs) as much as concordant news that they endorsed.
Finally, the team tested whether social media reward structures could be designed to promote the sharing of true information over false information. They showed that incentives for accuracy rather than popularity (as is currently the case on social media sites) doubled the amount of accurate news users shared on social platforms.
Study conclusions:
- The regular sharing of misinformation is not inevitable.
- Users could be incentivized to develop sharing habits that make them more sensitive to sharing truthful content.
- Effectively reducing misinformation would require restructuring the online environments that promote and support its sharing.
These findings suggest that social media platforms can take a more active step than moderating the information that is posted and instead seek structural changes to their reward structure to limit the spread of misinformation.
Meaning Disinformation is a global concern that has socioeconomic and political consequences. What drives its spread? The answer lies in the reward structure on social media that encourages users to form news-sharing habits that engage others and attract social recognition. Once users form these sharing habits , they automatically respond to recurring cues within the site and are relatively insensitive to the informational consequences of shared news, whether the news is false or conflicts with their own political beliefs. However, the habitual sharing of misinformation is not inevitable: we show that users can be incentivized to develop sharing habits that are sensitive to the value of truth . Reducing misinformation therefore requires changing the online environments that promote and support its sharing. |
