Disinformation, or intentionally false information, is a major challenge of the 21st century. Whether it is false claims about COVID-19 or fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, fake news is created and disseminated through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Disinformation campaigns spread like wildfire in our social media bubbles and echo chambers through likes, shares, and reposts. They take on a life of their own as myths are taken as unexamined facts.
Unfortunately, lies and untruths spread faster than verified facts. Moreover, once accepted, false information is challenging to correct. The dangers of fake news are significant, including reduced trust in democratic institutions, reduced social cohesion, increased divisiveness, and civil unrest.
A number of techniques are used to perpetuate disinformation online. By recognizing these techniques, people are better able to counter such disinformation campaigns that render them uncritical and unquestioning pawns. Here are several of the most common techniques:
Emotional Manipulation
Disinformation campaigns take advantage of people’s most basic behavioral influences, that is emotions. Evoking emotions increases the likelihood of believing fake information. For example, posts promoting conspiracy theories manage to exploit people’s fears and anxieties. High levels of arousal are common in times of great uncertainty, such as with the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, high levels of arousal serve to increase vulnerability to misinformation.
Images and photos may accompany false information. People are more likely to believe information, whether it is true or not when it is accompanied by a photo or image. Images are often used to evoke shock, sadness, or anger. Inflammatory rhetoric may also be used to induce outrage.
Social media allows for emotional contagion, whereby emotions are transferred to billions of people through international platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Outrage, fear, and disgust can spread across the globe in seconds.
Dichotomous Depictions
Disinformation campaigns are often presented without nuance. Complicated issues are depicted in black and white terms, whether that involves abortion, police funding, or other social issues. Situations or behaviors may be presented out of context, devoid of the full picture. Similarly, a group of people may be demonized and depicted as “other” with ill intent or portrayed as one-dimensional. Such simplistic representations often provoke a strong reaction, forcing people to take sides. Moreover, disinformation may be presented with a valence of right versus wrong. Since most people do not want to be on the wrong side of justice, they will go along with the side that their own group declares as right and just.
Credible Sources
Another impactful technique of disinformation is to declare that such information is coming from an expert or authority on a subject. Alternatively, information shared by a popular figure whether that be an actress, model, or singer can have a powerful impact on believability. Online messages claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic was fraudulent, for example, were carefully crafted using a number of manipulative strategies such as the use of a so-called “insider” and “expert”. Authority figures have enormous sway and influence over others and subsequent spread of information online. This is the case even with no evidence or proof that the authority figure has expertise in the subject at hand.
Affinity Protective Thesis
People's desire to maintain social networks drives them to agree with and support positions that their identified group supports. This behavior is driven by basic evolutionary needs for cooperation and survival. People are more likely to sign a position statement, re-share a Facebook post, or like a tweet because those in one’s personal or professional circle have done so. Disinformation campaigns take advantage of this basic human need for belonging through promoting messages consistent with a group’s identity or ideology. A cause becomes equated with the identity of a group and challenging that cause, no matter how valid, becomes threatening to the individual’s position in the group. Those who spread disinformation exploit these human needs and the tendency to go along with the crowd.
Rinse and Repeat
Information that is repeated over and over again relies on the construct of familiarity. Frequently encountered information is more likely to be believed than information that is not. Thus, creators of disinformation actively disseminate messages on repeat. Repetition of information also increases the perception that others believe it to be true. Online echo chambers ensure that similar messages show up in our feeds with friends, family, and social networks liking and reposting.
These are some of the most typical techniques used to deceive others online. Arming people with knowledge about the prevalence of these strategies and exposure is fundamental to increasing awareness of how attitudes and beliefs may be manipulated. The next step is providing people with tools to engage in deliberate, analytic, and reflective thinking, which is associated with the ability to discern between truth and falsehoods.