New research suggests online search can increase belief in misinformation

Posted under: Web technologies
Date: 2023-12-21
New research suggests online search can increase belief in misinformation

The paper, titled “Online searches to evaluate misinformation can increase its perceived veracity,” examines how results delivered by search engines such as Google to users seeking to evaluate news impact their belief in misinformation. Across the five experiments, the researchers provide compelling evidence to show that “doing your own research” is not always a remedy for refuting misinformation. Online search engines can also lead people to believe falsehoods. Data voids can bury credible information under a slew of low-quality information, which may contribute to this phenomenon. These findings caution against putting blind faith in online search engines as rigorous tools to verify news. The online news ecosystem has little to no barriers to entry, with blogs from unverified sources co-existing on the internet with reputed news outlets. This makes the challenge of discerning truth even more complex and requires search engines to conduct frequent quality checks.

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