Facebook Conspiracy Theorists Can’t Tell If They’re Being Trolled
Trolling, For Science!
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There are some deep, dark corners of the world’s largest
social media platform that most of us never encounter. Across hundreds upon
hundreds of Facebook groups, profiles and fan pages, conspiracy theories ranging from
the wild to the vaguely plausible to the outrageously offensive are discussed and
promoted. It’s the kind of thing you know about, but prefer not to ponder,
unless of course you’re a member of a certain research team from the IMT
Institute for Advanced Studies in Lucca, Italy.
Earlier this week, six researchers from the institute
published the results of a study called ‘Collective Narratives in the Age of
Misinformation’, which posited firstly that consumers of this kind of
information rarely ever venture outside of their creepy comfort zones. Turns
out it’s true, but more than that, it also turns out that it’s remarkably easy
to mislead said consumers, since they’ll often very quickly jump on any new
information without ever questioning its validity.
In an cross-section study of 1.2 million users, the team examined a
series of 4,709 ‘troll posts’ that sarcastically parodied anti-science
viewpoints. “These posts are clearly unsubstantiated claims, like the
undisclosed news that infinite energy has been finally discovered,” The
researchers claimed. “or that a new lamp made of actinides (e.g. plutonium and
uranium) might solve problems of energy gathering with less impact on the
environment, or that the chemical analysis revealed that chemtrails contains sildenafil
citratum (the active ingredient of Viagra),”
As it turned out, 78% of the users who hit the like button
primarily used Facebook to interface with conspiracy theory pages. 81% of
commenters belonged in the same camp. They also found that “where
unsubstantiated rumors are pervasive, false rumors might easy proliferate”,
meaning that the nonsense they posted to bait theorists had the potential to
catch on and spread further, Chinese whispers-style.
On the flip side, the researchers found that even when the
claims were as unsubstantiated and ludicrous as the ones that they were throwing
out, naysayers would go to great lengths to find evidence to debunk them, when all
they really need to say is ‘this makes no sense’ (or recognize that it's all
a parody and get on with their lives).
As amusing as it is to know that your garden variety tinfoil
hat-wearing, moon landing-denying nut-bar will believe literally anything you lay
down as long as it concords with their views, ‘digital misinformation’ is an
issue well worth addressing. The internet is, after all, the world’s forum and
social media is its largest soapbox. The measles outbreak in the US has been
linked to the on-going wave of anti-vaccination campaigners, for example.
In any case, the fact that people who engage with this kind
of information almost never venture outside of their comfort zones (be they
Illuminati, aliens, chemtrails, lizard people or the apocalypse, as predictedby Siri) just goes to show how small a role logic plays in these things.
Callum Davies
Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF
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Facebook Conspiracy Theorists Can’t Tell If They’re Being Trolled
Reviewed by Unknown
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Monday, March 02, 2015
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Monday, March 02, 2015
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