A few months ago I was inundated by a spate of messages that claimed that plastic bottled water left in a car causes cancer. The message had rapidly gone viral and there was panic as the public was quickly fooled into believing that this was true. Claiming to be a cancer update from John Hopkins Hospital in the US, the message warned that freezing or heating plastic packaging released cancer-causing dioxins into food and drink.
The message turned out to be a hoax as people realized that there is no such institution called 'John Hopkins Hospital'. Even the actual world-renowned Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore had to issue a strong denial saying the message was a hoax and did not originate at the hospital.
So why did so many people believe in that fake message in the first instance? And how is it that fake news garners so much more traction than real news?
There are several reasons for this.
The first reason is trust. Most of the time, we tend to believe information that we get from a perceived credible source. In the past, for any general news information, one would turn to a respected institution or the national media. Those days, the government and media were relied upon enough to provide a certain amount of latitude in being trustworthy purveyors of information.
Not so anymore. With people split along political affiliations or ethnicities or religious beliefs, there is an erosion of trust in traditional media. People tend to believe in messages coming from a source closer to home. The reasoning that occurs is that we may not trust the media but we do trust our family and friends. As a result a chain of trust is built up that worms its way to a large mass of people. Unfortunately, ever so often, somewhere along the line, mischief mongers or disinformation experts may misuse that trust to peddle fake information.
A second reason is that fake messages websites are often disguised to look exactly like trusted news sources. There have been a lot of instances in recent times when BBC and CNN logos have been replicated with a barely perceptible change (like a slight change in font face) to convey some falsehood. Readers who see the logos instinctively trust the information carried beneath it.
In today's world, with most people having access to numerous social media platforms there is a cacophony of information created and fed to a hungry public. And it does not help that often times, newsfeed generated on these public platforms are created by users not vetted for credibility or reliable content. WhatsApp messages and video forwards are circulated enmasse without anyone taking the time to check their veracity. The result: a digitally semi-literate population falling prey to fake news.
The third and the most compelling reason to believe fake news is confirmation bias. What this means is we tend to embrace and accept more readily what we already believe in. Simply put, it is the theory that when people want a certain idea they believe in to be true, they end up believing it to be true. According to a study in the Huffington Post, confirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views (or prejudices) one would like to be true. For example if I believe that having carbonated soft drinks causes cancer, I will tend to only read articles that endorse this view while ignoring anything else that suggests otherwise.
And nowhere is confirmation bias more apparent than on WhatsApp which gives enough elbow room for creating platforms for like-minded or homophilic people. A recent BBC study cites the fact that sharing of information and messages on WhatsApp is more about validating one's belief systems and identities. People consciously decide what to share in which WhatsApp group such as family, friend, work, political groups. And if one does not like a message or a video, one has the option of just skipping or deleting the content while forwarding only information that supports an acceptable view.
In the case of the bottled water, a number of my friends took to throwing out any water left in the cars. Because the message was so persuasive and credible, even educated people spoke in hushed tones about cancer causing carcinogens. The fake news worm had effectively wriggled its way into the system!
Writer is an author, blogger and journalist
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Fake news")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}