This paper explores how misinformation, including science and conspiracy news, spreads on social media among 1.2 million Italian Facebook users. It finds that users are more engaged with content that corresponds with their beliefs due to homophily, and those exposed to conspiracy theories are more likely to interact with satirical and false information. The study identifies the challenges of correcting misinformation and the influence of social network dynamics on information consumption.
Title
Viral misinformation: The role of homophily and polarization
Summary
َAuthor
Bessi, A., Petroni, F., Del Vicario, M., Zollo, F., Anagnostopoulos, A., Scala, A., … Quattrociocchi, W.
Year
2015
َThematic Area
Climate Change
Topic
Country
Italy
Region
Europe
Misinformation Combatting
Misinformation Diffusion
Place Published
APA 7th End Text Citation
Bessi, A., Petroni, F., Del Vicario, M., Zollo, F., Anagnostopoulos, A., Scala, A., … Quattrociocchi, W. (2015). Viral misinformation: The role of homophily and polarization. In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web (pp. 355–356). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2740908.2745939