By Dr. Tom Buchanan, University of Westminster — The Conversation UK — 18 December 2020
It might seem counterintuitive, but the best way to react to fake news and reduce its impact may be to do nothing at all. Engaging with false information increases the likelihood that other people will see it — any kind of interaction, whether clicking, reacting, or quoting to disagree, makes social media platforms show the material to more people. Research has well established that the more often people see pieces of information, the more likely they are to think they are true. A 2018 study found that when people repeatedly saw false headlines on social media, they rated them as being more accurate even when flagged by fact checkers. The implication: to reduce the effects of false information, people should try to reduce its visibility by not engaging with it at all.