Members in the Media
From: The Huffington Post

How Misinformation Spreads

The Huffington Post:

In a recent review paper in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, we follow the trails of misinformation: where it originates, how it is spread, how it is processed, how it affects our cognition, and how its effects can be alleviated.

Misinformation comes in many guises. It can come from jokes, from the grapevine, or from works of fiction (if you now wonder whether people really extract information from fiction, think about the fact that fiction author Michael Crichton has been invited as a climate “expert” to testify before a U.S. Senate committee.)

The evening news may report something believed to be accurate at the time, but overnight further investigations may reveal new evidence. What is genuinely believed to be a clandestine biological lab to produce weapons of mass destruction one day may actually turn out to be a legitimate commercial laboratory the next day.

Read the whole story: The Huffington Post

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