‘Trust/Distrust’ Buttons Might Reduce Misinformation Spread On Social Media
Analysis
To trust or not to trust—that is the question many of us ask when it comes to choosing our information today. Our choices can be so overwhelming that science wants to come to the rescue by adding extra buttons on social media postings.
This comes after researchers from the University College London (UCL) conducted experiments by adding ‘trust’ and ‘distrust’ buttons on social media, in addition to the already existing ‘like’ buttons, and found this helped reduce the spread of misinformation by half.
“Over the past few years, the spread of misinformation, or ‘fake news’, has skyrocketed, contributing to the polarisation of the political sphere and affecting people’s beliefs on anything from vaccine safety to climate change to tolerance of diversity. Existing ways to combat this, such as flagging inaccurate posts, have had limited impact,” said Professor Tali Sharot, a co-lead author of the study, in a statement….