Think before you click. That's the advice from Alexander Stewart, Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews, whose research indicates inattentive readers are more likely to click on a false news story, with misinformation content producers exploiting this attention gap.
  • Optional@lemmy.world
    10·
    9 months ago

    “Our work demonstrates that while most people actually prefer to engage with and share factual information, when they are tired, overwhelmed, or just plain lazy(+), they’re less likely to think about the veracity of a news story, and can get stuck into habits where they click on more stories from sites producing misinformation.”

    This effect can be particularly important when online media production focuses on a particular topic, for example during election cycles, leading to readers inadvertently clicking on links from sites they would not otherwise go to for their news content.(++)

    (+) or stupid. They didn’t say that but it feels like they really wanted to

    (++) like businessinsider.com

    • ryannathans
      1·
      9 months ago

      Mentioning a site’s url or name online increases their ranking in search engines and drives more traffic to the site