{"id":1404,"date":"2021-03-26T17:56:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T17:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/the-square.co\/es\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2021-03-26T17:56:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T17:56:06","slug":"why-do-we-believe-in-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-square.co\/es\/why-do-we-believe-in-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do we believe in fake news?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"1876\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">We all know that information disorder is not a recent phenomenon \u2014 mobilizing and manipulating information was a feature of history long before journalism established standards that define news as a genre based on particular rules of integrity \u2014 but it also a common view that powerful new technology makes manipulation and fabrication of content simple and social networks dramatically amplify falsehoods.<\/p>\n<p id=\"55fe\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Based on the Digital News Report of 2020 results, in my last\u00a0<a class=\"cs jw\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/the-square-lisbon\/do-we-trust-the-news-yes-but-ab7440c7c3a6\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a>, I wrote about the way the new coronavirus crisis\u00a0<a class=\"cs jw\" href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/the-square-lisbon\/information-disorder-surrounding-covid-19-we-all-have-a-word-to-not-say-2db588a139fe\" rel=\"noopener\">reinforced the need for reliable journalism<\/a>. Quick wrap-up:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"\">\n<li id=\"9c42\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">There are considerable country differences even within Europe, ranging from Finland and Portugal where over half (56%) of respondents said they trust news most of the time to less than a quarter in France (23%);<\/li>\n<li id=\"6834\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb ka jd je jf kb jh ji jj kc jl jm jn kd jp jq jr ke jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">In the 38 countries examined, just six countries have trust levels of over 50%;<\/li>\n<li id=\"b5ad\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb ka jd je jf kb jh ji jj kc jl jm jn kd jp jq jr ke jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">The news media were considered to have done a good job in helping ordinary people understand the extent of the crisis (60%), and also in making clear what people can personally do to mitigate the impact (65%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"619b\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">So, with that said, the key question for this joined-up thinking is \u201cwhy do we believe in fake news?\u201d And once again, let\u2019s read what the experts that studied the phenomenon have to say:<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"8192\" class=\"kf kg fx au av kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\"><strong class=\"bt\">1.<\/strong>\u00a0<strong class=\"bt\">Digital culture: \u201ca whole new level of reliance upon social information; and a whole new set of hazards and anxieties around errors, manipulation, and cascades of influence.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"0538\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb lc jd je jf ld jh ji jj le jl jm jn lf jp jq jr lg jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">This perspective is widely explained by Tom Chatfield, in\u00a0<a class=\"cs jw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/future\/article\/20190905-how-our-brains-get-overloaded-by-the-21st-century\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">this article<\/a>\u00a0published in the BBC website, and is based on two initial assumptions: we\u2019re all deluged by more information than we can possibly handle, and human judgement also relies upon secondary information that doesn\u2019t come from any external source.<\/p>\n<p id=\"b84c\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Accordingly to the British writer, broadcaster, tech philosopher, and educator, these two facts related to the digital culture create an info storm \u2014 \u201cin the sense of a sudden and tempestuous flow of social information.\u201d In other words, when you have too much information, but you don\u2019t have a medium to find if it\u2019s true or false, or \u201cif you just don\u2019t want to or have the time for processing it, then it can be rational to imitate others by way of social proof.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"faa0\" class=\"kf kg fx au av kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\"><strong class=\"bt\">2.<\/strong>\u00a0<strong class=\"bt\">Cognitive laziness, targeted emotions, and other psychological reasons<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"4b05\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb lc jd je jf ld jh ji jj le jl jm jn lf jp jq jr lg jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Christopher Dwyer is a researcher and educator at the National University of Ireland, Galway. For this expert in Critical Thinking, Metacognition, Memory, and Decision-Making, there are\u00a0<a class=\"cs jw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/thoughts-thinking\/201911\/7-reasons-why-we-fall-fake-news\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">six psychological reasons to understand why we fall for fake news<\/a>, explained in a Psychology Today article.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"\">\n<li id=\"7f13\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">We tend to favor information that confirms our existing beliefs;<\/li>\n<li id=\"d74e\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb ka jd je jf kb jh ji jj kc jl jm jn kd jp jq jr ke jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">We trust that our source of news and the information they provide to us is, in fact, true, without going deeper in the content, looking for evidence, or searching for the same information in other media outlets;<\/li>\n<li id=\"f04d\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb ka jd je jf kb jh ji jj kc jl jm jn kd jp jq jr ke jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">We don\u2019t read everything, we want the information fast;<\/li>\n<li id=\"aaa0\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb ka jd je jf kb jh ji jj kc jl jm jn kd jp jq jr ke jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">We are cognitively lazy and since verifying the truth of news stories don\u2019t play an important role in our daily lives, we don\u2019t use a reflective judgment;<\/li>\n<li id=\"799b\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb ka jd je jf kb jh ji jj kc jl jm jn kd jp jq jr ke jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Fake news is made in a way that breeds emotions and this presents a large barrier against critical thinking;<\/li>\n<li id=\"2633\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb ka jd je jf kb jh ji jj kc jl jm jn kd jp jq jr ke jt ju jv jx jy jz dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">The more we are exposed to certain information, either if it\u2019s true or false, the more likely we are to believe that information.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"f833\" class=\"kf kg fx au av kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\"><strong class=\"bt\">3.<\/strong>\u00a0<strong class=\"bt\">Repetition, Pronounceability, and Familiarity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"f81f\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb lc jd je jf ld jh ji jj le jl jm jn lf jp jq jr lg jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">\u201cThe Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation,\u201d a new collection of research articles edited by Rainer Greifeneder, Mariela Jaffe, Eryn Newman, and Norbert Schwarz was recently\u00a0<a class=\"cs jw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.niemanlab.org\/2020\/08\/what-makes-fake-news-feel-true-when-it-isnt-for-one-thing-hearing-it-over-and-over-again\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">summarized on the NiemanLab website<\/a>\u00a0and points out three main reasons to explain why and how people believe false information.<\/p>\n<p id=\"b41c\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">The first one is related to something that we\u2019ve just talked about \u2014 repetition. According to this perspective, the power of repetition is most pronounced for claims that people feel uncertain about and it increases agreement among people who actually know that the claim is false. Then, the authors point pronounceability to justify why people tend to give higher credibility and trustworthiness to a source whose name is easy to pronounce. And last but not least, people are more likely to accept information as true as time passes by. \u201cIn short, frequent exposure not only increases the apparent truth of a statement, it also increases the belief that the statement came from a trustworthy source.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"831d\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">To close this endless discussion, I would like to quote\u00a0<a class=\"cs jw\" href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/5362183\/the-real-fake-news-crisis\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Katy Steinmetz<\/a>: \u201cHumans like to think of themselves as rational creatures, but much of the time we are guided by emotional and irrational thinking. That is, of course, the way social-media platforms have been designed.\u201d And this is why, even if it\u2019s not a recent phenomenon, information disorder finds, in the digital environment, a way to spread faster than ever.<\/p>\n<p id=\"844c\" class=\"iy iz fx ja b jb jc jd je jf jg jh ji jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv fq dg\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">I don\u2019t have a definite answer for the starting question, but I\u2019m pretty sure that if you have arrived here, we\u2019re actually doing something crucial: thinking about it. And this is an important step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all know that information disorder is not a recent phenomenon \u2014 mobilizing and manipulating information was a feature of history long before journalism established standards that define news as a genre based on particular rules of integrity \u2014 but it also a common view that powerful new technology makes manipulation and fabrication of content [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why do we believe in fake news? - The Square<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/the-square.co\/es\/why-do-we-believe-in-fake-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why do we believe in fake news? 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