According to a study published in Science, social media content containing misinformation provokes more moral outrage than content containing accurate information, and this outrage facilitates the spread of misinformation. In addition, the results also showed that people are more likely to share this outrage-provoking misinformation without reading it first.
Ramón Salaverría - indignación
Ramón Salaverría
Professor of Journalism at the University of Navarra and coordinator of Iberifier (Iberian Digital Media Observatory).
This study confirms with strong empirical evidence the hypothesis that emotions play a key role in the processes of public dissemination of misinformation. Moreover, it is very novel because it finds that indignation is specifically the key emotion in the activation of the processes of social dissemination of misinformation.
- Research article
- Peer reviewed
McLoughlin et al.
- Research article
- Peer reviewed
