(This isn’t related to any specific disinformation campaign – sorry if it’s off-topic for this community.)
In short: people mostly get false information from people they do not know very well. And, oddly enough, they are more likely to believe it than if they were given that false information from someone they know well.
I’m not sure if there is much here that is actionable by fediverse users, but it’s probably good to know about. Especially if you’re in a community that is mostly made up of people who only distantly “know” each other, rather than having more frequent, personal interactions with each other.
I wonder if this phenomenon could be quantified within the social networks of various interest groups. For example, do individuals who subscribe to the flat earth theory tend to have fewer close relationships and more acquaintances?
Interesting. I’m guessing if it’s just a numbers game, then more social people are more likely to interact with more friends and acquaintances, compared to less social people. So, I imagine there would be more opportunities for them to be exposed to disinformation by an acquaintance.
Here’s my guess based on no research nor expertise: y’all know which of your friends typically have good info and which are ‘full of it’ so you don’t believe the latter group when they repeat stupid stuff. Then when you hear from other random sources, our lazy brains don’t bother adding a ‘source?’ flag unless/until that source has burned us before.
