Sheepy People: Research Finds Peer Pressure Drives the Spread of "Fake News"

[CousinIT]

https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/duke-fuqua-insights/research-finds-peer-pressure-drives-spread-%E2%80%9Cfake-news%E2%80%9D

Professor Hemant Kakkar studied the psychological and group pressures behind the sharing of misinformation on social media

MARCH 9, 2023

. . . Kakkar found when people share “fake news” on social platforms, the pressure to conform to the group is even stronger, because members who don't share misinformation receive social punishment. His findings are published in a new paper, “Tribalism and Tribulations” in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

. . .

In the latest study, Kakkar and Asher Lawson, who earned his PhD from Fuqua and is now a professor at INSEAD, and former research assistant, Shikhar Anand, now at McKinsey, wondered if the need to belong made people willing to promote pieces of news shared by groups—no matter their opinion about the validity of the sources, to avoid being ostracized and marginalized.

Kakkar and colleagues studied data from about 13,000 U.S. Twitter users who had shared “fake news” in 2020. In that year, social platforms had come under a lot of heat, Kakkar said, because of the confluence of “fake news” about COVID, misinformation about the U.S. elections, and social protests following the killing of George Floyd.

. . .

The big surprise from both studies was that we found these effects to be stronger with ‘fake news’ than for real news,” Kakkar said. “Which basically shows that these ‘fake news’ groups are much tighter. People in these groups want others to behave the same way as they do.”

Kakkar believes only a minority of the population spreads misinformation. “The general consensus is that a small minority of people on Twitter are responsible for most of the ‘fake news’ shared on social media,” Kakkar said, “But the consequences are felt by everyone.”

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Peer pressure? Really? How is this a revelation?

They bond with each other in churches that are increasingly becoming radical. They bond in their Anglo civic organizations, bars and diners. Who knew that an insular society would provide the kind of pressure that would case the dumbthink that is so prevalent in the right circles?

[BlackSkimmer]

2. Lol, anybody who has been on DU for awhile has seen this.

I've seen OPs bearing fake news that go on forever, despite multiple posters pointing out that the info is false.

Especially if the fake news is bad for any republican; the thread will draw believers like flies on pie.