Journal article
The global spread of misinformation on spiders
- Abstract:
- In the internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may also amplify the spread of misinformation. This problem is gaining global attention, as evidence accumulates that misinformation may interfere with democratic processes and undermine collective responses to environmental and health crises1,2. In an increasingly polluted information ecosystem, understanding the factors underlying the generation and spread of misinformation is becoming a pressing scientific and societal challenge3. Here, we studied the global spread of (mis-)information on spiders using a high-resolution global database of online newspaper articles on spider-human interactions, covering stories of spider-human encounters and biting events published from 2010-20204. We found that 47% of articles contained errors and 43% were sensationalist. Moreover, we show that the flow of spider-related news occurs within a highly interconnected global network and provide evidence that sensationalism is a key factor underlying the spread of misinformation.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 35.1MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.026
Authors
- Publisher:
- Cell Press
- Journal:
- Current Biology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 32
- Issue:
- 16
- Pages:
- R871-R873
- Publication date:
- 2022-08-22
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-06-10
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1879-0445
- ISSN:
-
0960-9822
- Pmid:
-
35998593
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1275420
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1275420
- Deposit date:
-
2022-08-24
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Mammola et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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