Title: Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media - Scientific American
Headings: Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media
Biases Make People Vulnerable to Misinformation Spread by Social Media
Researchers have developed tools to study the cognitive, societal and algorithmic biases that help fake news spread
Bias in the brain
Bias in society
Bias in the machine
Understanding complex vulnerabilities
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Content: Both social media platforms and search engines employ them. These personalization technologies are designed to select only the most engaging and relevant content for each individual user. But in doing so, it may end up reinforcing the cognitive and social biases of users, thus making them even more vulnerable to manipulation. For instance, the detailed advertising tools built into many social media platforms let disinformation campaigners exploit confirmation bias by tailoring messages to people who are already inclined to believe them. Also, if a user often clicks on Facebook links from a particular news source, Facebook will tend to show that person more of that site’s content. This so-called “ filter bubble ” effect may isolate people from diverse perspectives, strengthening confirmation bias. Advertisement
Our own research shows that social media platforms expose users to a less diverse set of sources than do non-social media sites like Wikipedia. Because this is at the level of a whole platform, not of a single user, we call this the homogeneity bias. Another important ingredient of social media is information that is trending on the platform, according to what is getting the most clicks. We call this popularity bias, because we have found that an algorithm designed to promote popular content may negatively affect the overall quality of information on the platform.