Science News Desk!!! According to a study, people who share news extensively on social media often pay less attention to its accuracy. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) conducted an experiment to understand the main tension between the impulse to share news and wondering whether it is true or not. The results showed that even considering whether or not to share news on social media reduced people’s ability to tell truth from lies. In the study, more than 3,000 people were asked to assess whether various news headlines were accurate. But when participants were asked first whether they would share that material, they were 35 percent worse at telling the truth than lying. Participants were 18 percent less successful at perceiving the truth when asked about sharing the truth after the evaluation. Asking people whether they want to share things makes them more likely to believe headlines they might not have believed otherwise, said David Rand, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Less likely to believe.
They get confused just thinking about sharing, he said. While both people’s willingness to share news content and their ability to judge it correctly can be boosted separately, the study shows that the two things positively reinforce each other when considered at the same time. does not strengthen it. The moment you ask people about accuracy, you’re giving them a signal, and the second you ask about sharing, said Ziv Epstein, a doctoral student in the Human Dynamics Group at the MIT Media Lab. giving them signals. If you ask about sharing and accuracy at the same time, it can undermine people’s capacity for truth.
–IANS
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