Pathway to a human-values based approach to tackle misinformation online

Abstract

Echoing what matters to us, our values pervade the criteria we apply in the judgment of the information we receive on social media when assigning to it a degree of relevance. In this era of “fake-news”, understanding how the values of a social group influence perception and intentions for sharing pieces of (mis)information can reveal critical aspects for socio-technical solutions to mitigate misinformation spreading. This particular study contrasts the reasoning of a group in the United Kingdom and another in Brazil when judging and valuating the same set of headlines. The results confirm the influence of dominant values in the group in the interpretation of the headlines and potential motivations for sharing them, pointing out directions to advance with the human values-based approach to fight misinformation.