Learning through the grapevine and the impact of the breadth and depth of social networks

Abstract

We study how communication platforms can improve social learning without censoring or fact-checking messages, when they have members who deliberately and/or inadvertently distort information. Message fidelity depends on social network depth (how many times information can be relayed) and breadth (the number of others with whom a typical user shares information). We characterize how the expected number of true minus false messages depends on breadth and depth of the network and the noise structure. Message fidelity can be improved by capping depth or, if that is not possible, limiting breadth, e.g., by capping the number of people to whom someone can forward a given message. Although caps reduce total communication, they increase the fraction of received messages that have traveled shorter distances and have had less opportunity to be altered, thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio.

Metacognition during fake news detection induces an ineffective demand for disambiguating information

“…Individuals not only face challenges when having to evaluate the veracity of the information they are exposed to, they also struggle to effectively search for extra information to verify social and political claims, sources, and evidence 11 . A number of strategies have been proposed to prevent the spread of misinformation [12][13][14] , including fact-checking, directing attention to accuracy [15][16][17] , censorship, encouraging more selective sharing by individuals 18,19 or capping the number of others to whom messages can be forwarded 20 . Yet, fact-checking at the speed and scale of today's platforms is often impractical for private companies or government agencies 20 .…”

“…A number of strategies have been proposed to prevent the spread of misinformation [12][13][14] , including fact-checking, directing attention to accuracy [15][16][17] , censorship, encouraging more selective sharing by individuals 18,19 or capping the number of others to whom messages can be forwarded 20 . Yet, fact-checking at the speed and scale of today's platforms is often impractical for private companies or government agencies 20 . An alternative approach could involve targetting individuals themselves and focusing on enhancing their abilities to assess the veracity estimation 21 .…”

Changing the incentive structure of social media platforms to halt the spread of misinformation

“…Such a system will work with the natural human tendency to select actions that lead to the greatest reward and avoid those that lead to punishment ( Skinner, 1966 ). Scientists have tested different strategies to reduce the spread of misinformation, including educating people about fake news ( Guess et al, 2020 ; Traberg et al, 2022 ), using a prompt to direct attention to accuracy ( Kozyreva et al, 2020 ; Pennycook et al, 2021 ; Pennycook et al, 2020 ) and limiting how widely a post can be shared ( Jackson et al, 2022 ). Surprisingly, possible interventions in which the incentive structure of social media platforms is altered to reduce misinformation have been overlooked.…”

Social interactions and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: Evidence from a full population study in Sweden

“…This effect creates an information feedback loop between individual and group choices based on the past choices of some people, which then affect the current social context and hence future choices of others [33,34]. Given this, information provided by friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors and workmates, along with the diversity of views provided in one's social networks and the scale and density of the social networks in which an individual is embedded can all complement an individual's own knowledge when making decisions [35][36][37].…”