Digital Deception: The Cognitive and Social Mechanisms of the Spread of Fake News
Abstract
Widespread access to online communication platforms created new security threats by giving hostile actors a powerful new weapon: digital deception. Fake news emerged as a remarkably potent tool for manipulating public opinion. This phenomenon has been implicated in a number of geopolitical surprises, including “Brexit vote” and Venezuela elections, and continues to drive debates about vaccination, climate change, GMOs, and other policy issues. The spread of fake news in online social networks highlights our vulnerability to digital influence and cognitive manipulation. Several studies have empirically characterized misinformation campaigns and developed tools for detection: yet, it remains unclear what makes fake news so successful.The proposed work will elucidate social and psycho-cognitive processes involved in the spread of fake news and other deceptive online communication. The three-pronged research program will first use empirical analysis to quantify social, psychological, and cognitive elements of fake news and deceptive information diffusion. Next, we will develop computational models that integrate cognitive and psycho-social factors to characterize the spread of deceptive communication. Finally, we will study the role of sophisticated bots in diffusion and amplification dynamics of malicious campaigns, focusing on bot-driven deception, to model behaviors and characteristic vulnerabilities of its human targets. The broad scope of our inquiry will allow us to obtain a holistic characterization of digital deception and information contagion dynamics in vulnerable targets, and help inform effective inoculation and response strategies: Understanding how hostile actors manipulate attention and perceptions of susceptible individuals will lead to new approaches for reducing their vulnerability, by steering attention to more desirable content, or by altering theirnetwork structure to reduce hostile influences.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 11, 2017
- Source ID
- FA95501710327
Entities
People
- Kristina Lerman
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of Southern California