Fake News - We Just Can't Help Ourselves

Our world appears commonplace to our eyes. Normal, everyday.

We look around the room and see lamps, tables, and sofas. Outside, trees and flowers and grass. But what we are perceiving is the end result of a long chain of miracles. Living cells, and molecules, atoms and electrons and subatomic particles making up matter which is nearly all empty space. Quarks and bosons and virtual particles which wink in and out of existence. The nature of our universe is very strange indeed.

But we sense and comprehend only the end result.

There is a theory that our universe consists only of energy and information. Energy is the raw stuff of gravity and heat and light. Information is the structure, or patterns, imposed on energy to create particles and crystals and the stuff of matter that we sense.

It was in this information-rich environment that life on Earth evolved.

Even the simplest bacterium, 4 billion years ago, could sense and navigate to nutrition-rich surroundings. The purpose of this activity was equally simple: to survive and reproduce. This is our heritage and the environment in which we, and all living things, evolved.

Information is fundamental to our reality. It is the reason that our big, human brains developed.

It is not surprising to learn, then, that we humans are addicted to information. In the savannah, a glint of red amongst the green leaves of a bush might mean edible berries. A flash of motion could be a lion preparing to charge. In modern aviation, the bearing and speed of the wind are fundamental measurements needed for a safe landing. The directions in your mother’s recipe box make the difference between a tasty meal and a smelly mess. Yes, information is fundamental.

With this in mind, let’s turn to news of a recent study performed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They found that with our big, information-processing human brains, we seem to prefer false news.

The researchers found that “fake news” spreads 70% faster on Twitter than true news. Further, “it also takes true stories about six times as long to reach 1,500 people as it does for false stories,” according to MIT. The scientists controlled for the presence of “bots,” automated purveyors of news, and found that effect was due to our behavior, not the Russians.

Although research is ongoing, there is no reason to doubt that the same effect will be seen on other social media platforms such as Facebook. We humans are just plain hooked on gossip.

What’s going on? Here are a few things to consider:

• False news tends to be different, unexpected. The truth is typically more mundane.
• Novel, or unexpected, information attracts our attention. Remember how our brains evolved on the savannah. A fresh bit of information could spell either opportunity or doom. We just can’t help ourselves to pay attention to it.
• As each person receives the information, they tend to pass it on if it is interesting to them. False news tends to be more surprising than truth and is hence much more likely to be propagated. (70% so, according to the study).

We all have had to deal with false or misleading information. A telephone call promising low, low rates if we sign up right now. A knock at the door, a house painter who happens to have leftover paint from a job “down the street” and will make you a real deal. An email requesting our banking credentials so that your “account can be verified.” We don’t often fall for it; our skepticism shields are up.

But somehow, when it comes to social media, we gullibly believe that a major airline is going to give away free first-class passage to the first 1,000 who apply. Not only are we sucked in, we share it with our friends so they can be conned too. Somehow, we haven’t yet figured out how to be more discerning and skeptical in the virtual world.

What to do? Perhaps, based on the research, when presented with novel information, we should assign a fairly high probability that it is false. Check it out, don’t be gullible.

And remember what your mother taught you many years ago: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Wise guidance for the virtual world.