False Brand Stories Reach More People Than True Ones

Brands should be just as concerned as politicians about false posts on social media. That’s because there are usually at least two fake brand stories that have spread so widely they rank on Snopes’ Hot 50 Fact Check List. (As I write this, three falsehoods—Pepsi wanting to eliminate "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, Bush’s Baked Beans being recalled, and KFC using mutant chickens—are on the list.)

These harmful narratives are hard to contain or dispel. Research from MIT shows that false rumors spread orders of magnitude faster and further, plus live longer than the truth. People eagerly share them because they are novel and evoke strong emotions like surprise or disgust.

Discouragingly, this misinformation is predominantly spread by humans via Facebook, Twitter and other social or messaging platforms. Bots are not key drivers.

The vast majority of Americans believe they can spot false stories. However, they are quite worried other people cannot. Research into our ability to identify false stories generally indicates we are not as good as we would like to be at separating fact from fiction.

Sources: The Atlantic 2018, BuzzFeed 2018, Chicago Tribune 2018, Harvard Business Review 2018, Washington Post 2018