![]() There’s a clear threat to basic needs such as food, shelter, safety – and most importantly, staying alive.Īs a result, information that is false, but seems to restore these basic needs, tends to spread quickly. But today, it is more likely to be fake news.ĬOVID-19 is unknown, uncertain and uncontrolled. In the past, this kind of compensation might have been magical beliefs. Modern psychological research concurs: under uncertainty, people seek safety, security and order – to compensate for lack of control. One of the things we know from classic anthropological work is that misinformation thrives where people have little control over environmental threats – like volcanic eruptions, unpredictable weather patterns or disease. We are also more inclined to share bad news, and a lot of the news related to COVID-19 is bad. When sharing information online, we give things very little scrutiny. Picture: Getty Imagesįake news also has an advantage when it comes to sharing information. The debate over wearing face masks is an example of where social and fringe media can feed rumour. This is because fake news often looks like real news – and we think we recognise a pattern. Humans are generally very bad at detecting fake information. Some of it has been mere speculation among otherwise well-meaning people who then spread their opinion as fact. ![]() The other kind of fake news is misinformation, which is spread innocently despite being incorrect.Įxamples of COVID-19 misinformation include misconstrued understandings of the disease, wishful thinking about false remedies and fanciful implications drawn on how the spread of the virus will play out. It appears certain political groups and state agents may wish to propagate chaos for the sake of political gains. In the case of COVID-19, there has been disinformation blaming racial groups, illegal immigrants and even governments for the spread of the virus. The first is disinformation, which is spread intentionally by people in bad faith. There are two major types of false information. This is clearly the case with COVID-19 fake news on social media. Unfortunately, these otherwise useful technologies can end up being abused. My research focuses on how innovation and new technologies (like social media, artificial intelligence, virtual reality) interact with consumer behaviour. Misinformation is something that we might expect for any major event that captures people’s imagination, but in the case of COVID-19, the spread of fake news offers unique challenges and dangers to the public. Nor does receiving blessings through the TV screen. It turns out sipping water every 15 minutes does not help. If you look for quick remedies, don’t get your hopes up. And no, 5G has nothing to do with it whatsoever. And it wasn’t the Chinese government either. In reality, it was not the US government that created the virus. Humans are generally very bad at detecting fake information because fake news often looks like real news.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |