There is a growing concern about the prevalence of misinformation in the current media environment. Previous studies have focused on how characteristics of misleading messages and individual differences can affect the perception and exchange of misinformation. However, social factors amplifying the impacts of misinformation have been largely overlooked. Especially, segregated groups with homogenous social characteristics, such as groups with the same race, gender, and political belief, have been suspected as a “breeding ground” of fake news and misperception, but the lack of empirical evidence has hindered identifying their causal effects. Hence, this project explores how social segregation affects the perception and propagation of misinformation.

Results of this project will be presented at the International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), July 2020.

* Title image source: the laboratory for social machines at MIT