Slowing the spread and influence of fake news has become a global concern as the Covid pandemic has made such matters literally a matter of life and death. Research from Michigan State University reveals that we’re more likely to be taken in by fake news when it’s in video form than in any other format. What’s more, we’re also more likely to share such videos with our network.
Indeed, 58% of the volunteers who viewed the fake news video thought it was real, versus just 48% when the story was in audio format and 33% when it was a text article. The researchers believe it may be a case of believing what we see.
“When you see something, you believe in it more because it seems so obviously real,” they explain. “With text, you must use your imagination and put yourself in that situation or scene that’s described in a series of words. But with video, it’s a much more direct experience. You are seeing it and you’re feeling it. And so, people seldom stop to think when they see a video, that they’ve seen something that is not true.”
Deep fakes
This higher likelihood of believing video-based fake news was especially high among people who were less involved in the topic of the story. It’s a problem that the researchers believe could become particularly pronounced with the rise of deep fakes.
“There’s a powerful psychological appeal behind video form,” they say. “And recent technologies can be used to very easily manipulate videos to create deep fakes. If people are going to believe what they see with their own eyes, then, these deep fakes have potentially dangerous consequences.”
The findings emerged after the reaction to videos shared on WhatsApp were monitored across 180 volunteers from across India. The fake stories were harvested from a range of sources, including Alt News and other platforms that expose fake viral videos in the country. The volunteers were shown one of the stories in either text, audio, or video before being asked a series of questions about each story.
Overloaded senses
The authors suggest that we often struggle to ascertain whether a viral video is reliable or not in part because the very nature of video sends a lot of information to our senses.
“Video contains many streams of information, including audio, visuals, moving images, graphics and text,” they explain. “When people take in all this information, they are mentally overloaded, making them less likely to scrutinize the details.”
When this is combined with ever-increasing realism and it results in videos being pretty believable. The encrypted and private nature of WhatsApp as a platform also makes it hard for users to comment on the trustworthiness of information as only the intended recipients can see each message.
The findings suggest, however, that social media platforms may want to focus their energies on video content in their fight against the fake news that is riddling their communities.
