People tend to believe an opinion that collects a lot of likes and ripostes. Evolution is to blame for this: ancient people agreed with the majority in order to stay in the tribe and survive. Together they fought off bears and hunted mammoths.
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But now it brings a lot of trouble, because thousands of likes convince not only of the truth, but also of fakes.
How can you convince a person of something without providing evidence. Hillary Clinton helped traffic children through a pizzeria. Because of this, a person broke into a pizzeria with a rifle and looked for children there.
Fakes sound whimsical and captivate the reader. And because social networks are better at promoting engaging content, fake news spreads six times faster than real news. They receive a lot of likes and ripostes, create a sense of their prevalence and convince people.
Next, we'll take a look at the research and learn more about how popularity makes ideas more persuasive. The study will also tell you how to fight fakes.
- The more popular the fakes, the more convincing they are
- How to solve the problem with the spread of fakes
- True or fake?
The more popular the fakes, the more convincing they are
Dr. Evan Ortisio and his colleagues from the University of California conducted an experiment. For this, they prepared 30 statements, many of which were fake. Here are examples of statements: prayer cures cancer, vaccinations cause autism, humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
The researchers then asked 600 adults to rate how certain they were of the truth of the statements. After them, another question was asked: in your opinion, what percentage of people support each of the statements?
Next, participants were shown how many people actually supported the statement. Sometimes this information was exaggerated to see how it would affect the opinion of the participants.
For example, a participant read the statement that "toxic waste causes autism." He then assumed that 30% of people agreed with this. After that, the participant was shown that 70% of people agree with the statement.
According to the study, people then rated the statement as more believable. And some doubters agreed with a statement based purely on the number of people who support the statement.
"People seem to change their minds when it turns out to be less popular than expected." - says doctor Ortisio.
This trend persisted throughout the study. Participants learned how many people agreed with each of 30 statements, and based on that they changed their confidence in the statements.
Thus, a person will consider the information more believable if he is shown that the information enjoys more support than he thinks. You don't even need proof.
How to solve the problem with the spread of fakes
Dr. Ortisio offers four tips.
- The results of the study confirm that social networks are responsible for the spread of fakes. But they can help solve the problem: remove the reposts and likes from records that have been flagged as falsely entered.
- Previous research shows that once a person has made up their mind, it is difficult to persuade them. He is no longer looking for arguments against and is not amenable to them. Therefore, it is better to give people reliable information in advance, before they believe the fake.
- In order not to overestimate the prevalence of the idea, subscribe to the channel of opponents of this idea. For example, subscribe to homeopaths - subscribe to the popular science channel as well. So you will understand what other beliefs prevail among people and what motives guide the authors of the sources.
- Do not spread fakes yourself.
True or fake?
Here are 30 questions that scientists asked the participants of the study.
- You can learn about personality traits and mental health of a person by handwriting.
- Hospitals are overstating the number of deaths from COVID-19.
- The assassination of President Kennedy was the organized work of a group of people.
- Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of raping children, hanged himself in solitary confinement while awaiting trial.
- Prayer cures cancer.
- Reconstruction of the bone system cures most physical ailments.
- All else being equal, a black person is more likely to contract COVID-19 than a person with white skin.
- Toxic waste causes autism.
- HIV causes AIDS.
- Hillary Clinton assisted a network that sold children into sexual slavery and coordinated from a pizzeria in Washington.
- Powerful people are hindering the development of effective treatments for COVID-19.
- The terrorist attack on September 11 was planned by the US government.
- People landed on the moon.
- COVID-19 is more dangerous than the flu.
- Hypnosis can bring out repressed memories.
- Donald Trump is trying to stop a group of pedophiles and Satanists who have become entrenched in the elite.
- Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
- Aliens are now visiting Earth.
- NIH Director Anthony Fauci is lying about COVID-19 because he is profiting from the vaccine.
- Children get or spread COVID-19.
- People retain consciousness after death and visit those who are currently living.
- Vaccinations cause autism.
- Climate change is caused by humans.
- People can contract COVID-19 outdoors.
- The media exaggerated the risks of COVID-19 to destroy Donald Trump's ratings.
- Wearing masks is harmful to health.
- Masks reduce the possibility of transmission of COVID-19.
- Bill Gates wants to track people with microchips that are given with the COVID-19 vaccine or when they are tested for COVID-19.
- The COVID-19 virus is the handiwork of the most influential people.
- The earth is flat.
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