RubyConf 2018 Psychology of Fake News

Fake news spread six times faster in social media than true stories. As technologists, our industry has built the tools that enable the spread of disinformation across social, the web, and beyond. But fake news is nothing new, it has been a part of each advancement in the technology that powers the spread of information, from the printing press to blogging. What makes fake news so appealing? Is it a tech problem or a human problem? In this talk, I will explain the psychology that makes fake news appealing to our brain, and what technology can learn about this psychology to build better tools.

Transcript

1. PSYCHOLOGY OF FAKE NEWS [@cecycorrea // RubyConf // 2018] AND WHAT TECH CAN DO ABOUT IT
2. ORSON WELLES, WAR OF THE WORLDS, 1938
4. THAT WAS THEN...
5. THIS IS NOW.
7. FUTUREOFFAKENEWS.COM
8. [ethics checkpoint]
9. THIS CREATES A SOCIETY WHERE NO ONE CAN BELIEVE ANYTHING.
10. WELCOME TO THE POST-TRUTH WORLD
11. WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE FAKE NEWS?
12. THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND FAKE NEWS
13. HOW BELIEFS ARE FORMED HOW WE EXPERIENCE KNOWLEDGE
14. THINKING FAST AND SLOW, DANIEL KAHNEMAN HOW BELIEFS ARE FORMED
15. SYSTEM 1 fast, automatic, intuitive (FAST)
16. SYSTEM 1 fast, automatic, intuitive (FAST)
17. SYSTEM 2 Analytical (SLOW)
18. WE USE SLOW MIND (SYSTEM 2) TO FORM BELIEFS, OUR ACTIONS ON THOSE BELIEFS ARE INSTINCTUAL
19. FAKE NEWS SITES COVERING THE SAME ‘STORY’ SOURCE: BUZZFEED
20. YELLOW JOURNALISM EST. 1890s
21. SENSATIONALISTIC HEADLINES WORK BECAUSE THEY APPEAL TO OUR FEELINGS
22. WHERE DO FEELINGS FIT WITH BELIEFS AND KNOWLEDGE?
23. “WHEN FACED WITH A DIFFICULT QUESTION, WE ANSWER AN EASIER ONE INSTEAD”
24. HOW WE ANSWER QUESTIONS WITH FEELINGS “How should financial advisors who prey on the elderly be punished?” “How much anger do I feel when I think of financial predators?”
25. WE CAN OFTEN CONFUSE FEELINGS FOR KNOWLEDGE
26. KNOWLEDGE THE KNOWLEDGE ILLUSION
27. EXERCISE: DRAW A BIKE
28. KNOWLEDGE IS SHALLOW “BY DESIGN”
29. OUR BRAINS COULD NOT FUNCTION IF WE WERE AWARE OF HOW MUCH WE DON’T KNOW
30. THE KNOWLEDGE ILLUSION THE KNOWLEDGE ILLUSION “...strong feelings about issues do not emerge from deep understanding... but it deepens as more people believe this together”
31. BELIEVING (FEELING) TOGETHER
32. FAKE NEWS SPREAD SOURCE: THE ATLANTIC
33. “It seems to be pretty clear that false information outperforms true information,” said Soroush Vosoughi, a data scientist at MIT who has studied fake news since 2013 and who led this study. “And that is not just because of bots. It might have something to do with human nature.”
35. NOT TRUE
36. “The supposed panic was to tiny as to be immeasurable”
37. “The supposed panic was to tiny as to be immeasurable” “As the show receded in time and became more infamous, more and more people claimed to have heard it.”
38. FAKE NEWS STORIES ELICIT A STRONG EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
39. CAN WE DISPROVE FAKE NEWS?
40. EXERCISE: DRAW A BIKE EXPLAIN POLICY
41. GREAT! LET’S DO THAT!
42. TURNS OUT PEOPLE DON’T LIKE FEELING DUMB
44. “For some of our participants, checking out the other bubble only confirmed their commitment to staying inside their own.”
45. “A GOOD LEADER MUST BE ABLE TO HELP PEOPLE REALIZE THEIR IGNORANCE WITHOUT MAKING THEM FEEL STUPID”
46. THIS IS WHERE TECH COMES IN!
47. EDUCATION
48. EDUCATION DESIGN
49. EDUCATION DESIGN ENGINEERING
50. EDUCATION
51. “...if we have STEM education without the humanities, or without ethics, or without understanding human behaviour, then we are intentionally building the next generation of technologists who have not even the framework or the education or vocabulary to think about the relationship of STEM to society or humans or life... SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
52. ...understand how code intersects with human behaviour, privacy, safety, vulnerability, equality.”
53. TEACHING OTHERS ABOUT COMPUTER SAFETY
55. DESIGN FOR A POST-TRUTH WORLD [@marisamorby @AJDavis_]
56. NATIVE ADS
58. A POST-TRUTH WORLD NEEDS MORE HONEST DESIGN
59. ENGINEERING
60. FUTUREOFFAKENEWS.COM
61. SOURCE: CNN
62. SOURCE: @arsduo
63. TECH + HUMAN
70. “You can’t tell your advertisers that you can target users down to the tiniest pixel but then throw your hands up before the politicians and say your machines can’t figure out if bad actors are using your platform.” —Jessica Powell
71. PSYCHOLOGY ETHICS EDUCATION DESIGN ENGINEERING SOLUTION