why do we believe fake news

cognitive simplicity

belief comes naturally

skepticism is slow and unnatural

Cognitive dissonance

two conflicting thoughts at the same time

people tend to believe ideas that support their beliefs

experiment presents ideas that contradicts people beliefs

people who strongly resisted these ideas

increased response in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and decreased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex

shows how emotions affects our reasoning

people who changed their minds

less BOLD signal in the insula and the amygdala

belief change is more common in non political beliefs

Backfire Effect

believe more on their beliefs because of overwhelming evidence against them

Tribal unity

agreeing with our other group members

how to stop believing big news

ask questions

how do you know that's true

fact checking websites

fake news are spreading faster than true news

True information took six times more than false information to reach an audience of 1.500 Twitter users while ‘fake news’ stories were 70% more likely to be retweeted.

fake news simply entertain us

emotional intensity makes an more likely to be spread

two key characteristics in believing fake news

open mindedness

searching for alternative explanations for things, and willinginess to accept information that challenges previously held beliefs.

analytical thinking

tendency to analyze cause and effect, to consider things logically

low in three kinds of people

religious fundamentalists, people prone to delusional thinking, and people prone to dogmatism