A study published in Nature reveals that searching for fake news online can increase the likelihood of people believing the misinformation by about 20%. The phenomenon is more pronounced in individuals who receive lower quality information from search engines, leading to 'data voids' that reinforce belief in false information. The findings underscore the importance of media literacy programs in combating misinformation.
Researchers found that people searching misinformation online risk falling into “data voids” that increase belief in conspiracies. https://t.co/G8ApxZLytZ
Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity https://t.co/26AHQx3Wnu "...search effect is concentrated among individuals for whom search engines return lower-quality information." "...highlight the need for media literacy programmes." by… https://t.co/21wRa8nvB0
Data voids in search results can lead down rabbit holes that bolster belief in fake news https://t.co/tR10DqlmlZ
In five experiments, encouraging people to use search engines to evaluate the veracity of fake news posts increased the likelihood of them being rated as true (@lauren_leffer / Scientific American) https://t.co/Asp8yICEvL https://t.co/2KfZxWzzn7
Unsure if news is true? Looking it up may make you more likely to believe misinformation - study Five experiments gauged the impact of online search engines in evaluating false or misleading views. #Study | #FakeNews | #Misinformation https://t.co/Npf4pJpyCn
Online search results can increase belief in misinformation https://t.co/XQ8pqq24jt
"[N]ew research quantitatively demonstrates how search results, especially those prompted by queries that contain keywords from misleading articles, can easily lead people down digital rabbit holes and backfire": https://t.co/ecHxzsaztR #ethics #internet #misinformation #literacy
Incredibly excited to see our paper out @Nature today! Tl;dr: when you are searching for online to try to determine whether a news story is true, online search makes you *more* likely to believe false news stories are true, not less likely! 🧵👇 https://t.co/t7vZ98GQoh https://t.co/SrHGMlzr8o
Searching online to evaluate false news leads to a 20% increase in belief in misinformation--yikes! Bad news for the "I do my own research" folks. https://t.co/OWb3Ai3QFI
Online search results can increase belief in misinformation To counter misinformation, people are often advised to check the truth of claims by searching online. "Doing your own research" https://t.co/1PxVEkfhy9 1/2
Can searching for false news increase belief in misinformation? Yes, by ~20%, according to our new paper out today in @Nature. In addition, this phenomenon is concentrated among individuals for whom search engines return lower quality information. 👇🧵1/ https://t.co/vWY7o8XEEh https://t.co/KShuj5xZee
People asked to evaluate the truthfulness of fake news stories using a search engine may be more likely to believe the misinformation as true, a study in @Nature reports. https://t.co/ohrtwxpK8r https://t.co/858BZP0e0d
Fake news becomes more believable if you Google it, study finds https://t.co/F9dwnOLdiw