The Surprising Reason People Share Misinformation

Why do Americans decide to share certain news stories? Most of the time, we assume when someone shares a piece of misinformation, they are doing it to share deeply held beliefs. The truth may be somewhat more surprising.

A new study found that the majority of people say that sharing true stories matters, but researchers discovered that "something about the social media context shifts people's attention away from caring about the truth, and onto the desire to get likes and signal their ideological affiliation."

So people share stories they know to be untrue not necessarily because they believe them but rather because they want the attention. This should have us all worried.