I’m super excited to announce I'm part of an amazing team (<3 @williambrady.bsky.social @killianmcloughlin.bsky.social @mjcrockett.bsky.social) that just published a paper in @science.org on the role of outrage in spread of misinformation
Link here:
https://science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl2829
Summary in🧵🔽
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Link here:
https://science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl2829
Summary in🧵🔽
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Comments
#disinformation
Newspapers are aware that rage bait pays.
And how do algorithms peddle outrage and disinformation? @kevpluck.bsky.social made this cool clip in 2019: Never reply to trolls! https://nitter.poast.org/kevpluck/status/1210929959033884673
― Christopher Wylie, Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America, 2019
#CambridgeAnalytica
@carolecadwalla.bsky.social explained it on #TED, so that even average politicians would understand. No reaction.
Next comes #EU
#Ememies of open societies & #democracy: #Musk #Zuckerberg / #Facebook
It just needs to FEEL true to them.
https://kateklonick.com/wp-content/u
piss off
Your premise is food for thought. I’ll think twice before I hit the forward button.
Hate sells
=> We see "Feelers" vs "thinkers" fight in social media
https://bsky.app/profile/steamtraen.eu/post/3lc3hkqwmhc2n
People have had since 2014 to make Peter Pomerantsev a household name about the psychological warfare technique.
Counter Surkov #MonoMyth mind-fuck
1. Make Neil Postman a household name
2. Make Peter Pomerantsev a household name
Confront toxic popularity and anti-intellectualism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
It always amazes me how Trump's cult would recite what he said that outraged them, but couldn't discuss the reality at all.
They just stupidly accepted his premise
YES folks, the earth really is flat.
Don't fall off!
#ThankYou
We are always interested in testing our hypothesis that allowing all users to be verified (if they wanted) and allowing all users to screen out unverified accounts, would act to curb the spread of misinformation and other harms.
@cleanuptheinternet.bsky.social
Disinformation is the force, plan, and cause; misinformation just a byproduct, main part of application of the plan that follows, and goals of the perpetrators.
however, i should point out that the people who should read things like this, do not
66 pages PDF
I hope we can make a plan from this to save democracy. Sorry I am looking for some hope.
☮️💙👍🏽
Does it for example help if people are aware that their emotions are being played?
look into that
There's no such thing as misinformation.
'Misinforming' is a thing, which depends on intention, details provided & clarity of the arguments brought forward.
The key analytic question: Does the informer speak to reason & logic, claim status or authority, or appeal to emotions?
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I feel its pretty obvious considering outrage marketing is a thing & a few YT creators have obvious metrics that positive videos have less views
(that might be interesting to look at in general? have creators from diff groups check that)
It reflects an incredibly robust 8 (!) studies (multiple platforms, methods, time periods) in which we found repeatedly & somewhat unsurprisingly that misinfo evokes more outrage than trustworthy news & that when it does it's shared more AND read less
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Instead we focus on *emotions evoked in users* & measure outrage specifically for the first time
Outrage is very engaging, amplified by algos, & serves reputational goals, so we argue misinformation might exploit it
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(thanks to @williambrady.bsky.social 's summary!)
1M FB links + 34k users worth of Twitter data, 2016 and 2020 + behavioral experiment (N = 1450). Multiple classification schemes for misinfo, studies that control for users being in different networks
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Big Finding #1:
First we found that misinfo consistently evokes more outrage than trustworthy news, and when it does it is shared more.
Interestingly, *this is specific to outrage* !! It is not just a general association with negative emotion in general.
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Outrage-evoking misinfo seems to have little concern for truth
It is shared more w/out reading, but people still could tell you it wasn't true, they just don't care
In other words, we basically prove the adage "YOU CAN'T BRING FACTS TO A FEELINGS FIGHT"
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People need to be more upset that people are lying to them in an effort to use them.
BIG LIE that led to Jan6