Fake news that catches the eye can spread quickly by using human sharing instincts. Cognitive biases make readers choose to believe in positions rather than facts, and even At that time, people only insisted on the posture of “adhering to the principle”, not the “principle” itself. This article is from the WeChat official account: ten o’clock Science (ID: Science_10) , author: Tang Yicheng (the science of mental health Promotion Center) , Editor: Long Hao, Gao Peiwen, title picture from: Visual China
From the past to the present, the issue of “fake news” has been a concern. From extensive media reports on this issue to the establishment of a special investigation committee by the government, they have repeatedly demonstrated their determination to eliminate fake news. But in fact, fake news has been repeatedly banned.
For example, when the Malaysia Airlines 370 passenger plane lost connection in 2014, various media information flew indiscriminately, and various conspiracy theories made people confused; during the new coronavirus epidemic, “someone used 5G base stations to spread the virus” and “new crown virus is artificial “Fake news such as absurdity was also all the rage, causing mass confusion and panic.
Fake news spreads extremely quickly as soon as it is released. But why is such a false news full of errors and omissions spread so fast? Why do people always like to watch fake news? This starts with the laws of human psychology.
Fake news in the true sense
Fake news refers to “false, false and sensational information spread under the guise of news reports,” and its content is often inflammatory. It spreads virally through people’s sharing behavior, causing greater social harm.
In fact, sharing news is a human instinct. In an information society, people gain a sense of identity by exchanging valuable information and linking with others. Without sharing, social networks do not exist, because we form a whole through the continuous exchange of information.
Some people’s sharing is a kind of altruistic behavior, and passing the news to those in need will make them feel dedicated and have a feeling of “I belong to a certain group”; others are “show-off sharers” , Using news as a social currency to establish a well-informed group impression.
It is human instinct to share news| unsplash
Fake news often uses human sharing instincts to spread itself. On the one hand, it is because the content of fake news catches people’s attention. On the other hand, it is because some cognitive biases make it difficult for us to distinguish the authenticity of news.
Can’t stop: the more details, the more “credible” fake news
Conjunction fallacy(conjunctionfallacy) makes us vulnerable to fake news. The conjunctive fallacy states that if false stories are carefully codified and detailed, we are more likely to believe false news. The more details contained in a message, the more it feels reasonable and credible, although in fact the possibility of it becomes smaller rather than greater.
For an example, imagine a fictitious lady named “Linda”. Linda is 31 years old this year, single and unmarried, with a straightforward personality, smart and intelligent, and majoring in philosophy. When she was a student, she paid special attention to gender discrimination and social justice issues, and actively participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Which of the following two options is more likely to be an accurate description?
1. Linda is a bank teller.
2. Linda is a bank teller who actively participates in the feminist movement.
The second article sounds more credible because its content is consistent with the background introduction, making the whole story more coherent and fulfilling. Despite this, the probability of the first occurrence is actually higher. The reason is simple: the first situation includes the second.
By extension, for any discussion of A, B, and C, the probability of A being true is always greater than the probability of A, B, and C being all true, because if A, B, and C are all true, A must be True, but not vice versa.
When two things can happen separately or jointly, the probability of the two things happening together cannot be higher than the probability of any one thing happening alone. Everyone knows this simple truth, but when watching the news, people always instinctively think that things with more details happen more frequently.
In fact, the more specific things are, the less likely they are to happen. On the Internet, false stories are carefully fabricated and rich in details. Because it is full of details, it is easy to believe that such false news is true.
The more details, the more “trustworthy” the news, but the less likely it will be unsplash
Acknowledgment bias: position sometimes overshadows facts
Position will also affect our judgment on news. The (Slate) magazine conducted an experiment to show readers photos of real events and five randomly selected fake photos. It turns out that, on average, every fake photo implants false memories in at least 15% of people. Overall, nearly half of the participants believed that the events depicted in the fake photos did occur.
Steven Frenda, a California psychologist in Los Angeles, found through analysis of experimental data that peopleMore willing to believe in fake photos that fit their political position or worldview, that is, fake news that fits your position is easier to believe.
The reason for this phenomenon is “confirmation bias“, which means that we will find and interpret information in a way that supports our own opinions. In this case, we may block certain information and only believe in information that conforms to our own views, even if the information is false.
A few days ago, it was reported that Trump had colluded with Russia in private to manipulate the US election. There are many claims, but there is no real evidence. Here is the performance of “confirmation bias”:
You will find that every time there is a new “revelation” of Trump’s communication with Russia in the media, Trump’s supporters and opponents will regard this revelation as evidence to support their views!
People who oppose Trump say that this revelation proves that Trump is connected to Russia; those who support Trump say that there is no actual evidence here at all. If you take an unsubstantiated thing to say Trump, it just shows Tron. Pu is innocent!
Trump and Putin “intimate meeting”| Kremlin.ru
In fact, we always wear colored glasses to see the world, and the world that everyone sees is distorted.
Research has further pointed out that when people are affected by confirmation bias and believe in fake news, they may even distort their memories. In other words, people often turn their lies into memory.
In 2018, a study by Brandeis University in the United States found that it only takes 45 minutes for people to believe their lies. There are 42 participants in the study, half of whom are elderly (60~92 years old), the other half are millennials (18~24 years old) span>. All of them were given a 102-question form with daily questions about what they did the day before.
The researchers randomly selected half of the questions and asked the subjects to lie. After 45 minutes, the interviewee answered the same questionnaire. This time, the researchers asked them to answer all the questions truthfully, but the results showed that “some lies change the memory, it creates new memories for things that didn’t actually happen.” Of course, compared with young people, old people are easier Misleading by wrong information.
It seems that we are not only easy to be misled by fake news on the Internet and trigger false memories, but we also provide ourselves with misinformation. In other words, lying can also tamper with people’s memories.
Blindness of choice: In fact…the standpoint is also a cloud
As mentioned earlier, people are more willing to believe in fake news that demonstrates their position. “The butt determines the head” is a kind of human nature! However, the next two experiments will tell you that even the position is unreliable!
In 2005, several Swedish researchers accidentally discovered an interesting psychological effect called “selection blindness(choice blindness)“, It means people often can’t remember their choices.
In the experiment, the researcher showed the subjects two photos and asked the subjects to choose which photo the person on the subject looks better and more attractive. After the subjects were selected, the researcher put the two photos away and fiddled with them as if shuffling the cards, then took out one of the photos and put them in front of the subjects, and said, “Can you explain to me? , Why do you think this person is more attractive?”
The key to this experiment is that the one that the researcher took out later was not the one selected by the subject at the beginning, but the one that he rejected and failed. But the result of the experiment is that most of the subjects did not find it.
The effect of “selective blindness” was later repeated several times. For example, in a 2013 study, subjects selected several funds to invest in, and then immediately typed on the screenCome to these funds and say that this is your choice. Can you talk about why you chose this way? And more than 60% of the subjects did not find that a fund on the screen had been changed.
The most interesting feature of the phenomenon of “choice blindness” is that people not only forget their choice, but they can also talk about the changed choice and say why I chose this way——As if he really chose it.
Choose blindness, which makes people ignore their position and defend their “choice”. |pixabay
The phenomenon of “selective blindness” reminds us that when facing some views on public affairs, if our position is not related to our own interests, in fact our position is vacillating, and even in many cases, we simply do not remember our position. What people insist on is only the attitude of “adhering to the principle”, not the content of the “principle” itself.
When faced with the flood of news and information, what people care most is often not whether the news is true or not, or even whether the news conforms to the position, but whether they can win in the debate. Fake news and fickle positions have made the Internet a hardest hit area for cognitive biases.
Who is reposting fake news?
In the era of “everyone can speak”, the Internet has become a hotbed of fake news. On the one hand, the network lacks “gatekeepers” and information is not edited and reviewed, which leads to a huge amount of information, which is difficult to distinguish between true and false; on the other hand, since the rise of the media, news production has become easier, and the speed of news dissemination has also soared. Caused the proliferation of fake news.
So who exactly are reposting fake news, and what do these people have in common?
Before and after the 2016 U.S. election, researchers from New York University and Princeton University tracked 1,300 people and found that their age may beThe best indicator for judging the crowd sharing fake news. Among them, 11% of users over 65 shared fake news links, while only 3% of users aged 18 to 29 shared. Judging from the number of fake news sharing, people over 65 are nearly 7 times that of people aged 18-29.
It can be seen that the elderly are the main force in spreading fake news.
This aspect is because the elderly lack the digital media literacy necessary for judging the authenticity of online news. More importantly, from the perspective of cognition and social psychology, aging has an effect on cognition and memory. Negative impact.
This theory believes that with age, memory will deteriorate, which makes it difficult for the elderly to resist the “real effect of illusion”, that is, when they are repeatedly exposed to a certain type of information, they are willing to believe it The information is correct. When assessing the truth, they are more willing to judge based on their familiarity rather than rational analysis. Therefore, the more complex the information environment and the more prevalent misinformation, the more serious this effect is.
The Internet has become a hotbed of fake news, and the elderly are the hardest hit areas | Pixabay
How to defend against fake news
To resist the influence of fake news, learning to think about the rationality of numbers is the first step.
Many news articles will use numbers to demonstrate opinions. For example, one piece of news mentioned that the population of California marijuana users has tripled every year for 35 years. There is a problem with the numbers here. Assuming that 35 years ago, there was only one person in California who smoked marijuana. This number will triple every year and it will exceed 17 billion in 35 years. A simple calculation can verify the reliability of the data.
At the same time, you need to be alert to expert opinions. Experts are generally right, but they can also make mistakes. What’s bad is that it’s easy for people to mistakenly think that experts are always right, just because they are experts, they are respected and knowledgeable. This is especially true when trying new things in existing fields. People tend to think that people who know better seem to speak more convincingly.
For example, the physicist Gordon Shaw once proposed that listening to Mozart’s music for 20 minutes a day can temporarily increase IQ. This view was later questioned because the physicist was not an authority in the field of human mind research. Moreover, in his experiment, a group of people listened to Mozart, while the control group did nothing. The experiment was not rigorously arranged for the control group. Because of boredom and stagnation, the IQ response would temporarily decrease. Therefore, experts also make mistakes.
Finally, what needs to be emphasized is the “confirmation bias” mentioned repeatedly. “Confirmation bias” allows people to focus on data and information that is beneficial to them. For example, you think that taking too much vitamin D will cause physical discomfort, so when the evidence to support this conclusion appears, you will not hesitate to agree, ignoring whether the information itself is true. Therefore, when you get a point of view, you should review the pros and cons of the view at the same time to avoid drawing biased conclusions.
Similar to “confirmation bias” is a cognitive bias “motivational reasoning“, which refers to the experience we experience when we have a strong motivation to reach a certain conclusion Emotional arousal will interfere with our way of reasoning, thus making us lose our judgment on news.
For example, suppose you are extremely disgusted with a certain politician in the United States. When you see negative news about this politician, you will believe without thinking instead of thinking about the truthfulness of the news.
Previously, there was an AI that can write fake news, called Grover, which can write some wild fake news on any topic, such as “Why Trump Do 100 Push-ups a Day” written by the controversial figure Trump Grotesque article. It looks quite like that:
This ridiculous news topic because of the addition of AI’s grasp of Trump’s character and speech may really deceive many people-especially those who have a negative impression of Trump.
Of course this is just a joke, but when I think that even AI can write fake news on its own, next time you forward a certain news, do you have to think about it for 1 to 2 seconds?
This article is from WeChat official account:Ten-point science (ID: Science_10), author: Tang Yicheng (the science of mental health promotion center), editor: Long-ho, high-Pei Wen