Academic Researchers Make the Case that Search Engines Should Include Trust Indicators for News and Information. Here’s Why:
A study by NYU researchers using NewsGuard data found that using online search to evaluate the truthfulness of false news articles often actually increases the probability of believing them.
By Elan Kane and Veena McCoole | Published on January 9, 2024
Your uncle shares on Facebook that he refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine because it causes Vaccine-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, or VAIDS. (The claim is provably false. NewsGuard licensees can access the full Misinformation Fingerprint here.)
Having never come across this claim and recalling the methods of cross-referencing information taught in media literacy programs at school, you head to your favorite search engine and search: “Does the COVID-19 vaccine cause VAIDS?”
While a search engine may give you the correct information and explain that VAIDS does not exist, a December 2023 study by NYU researchers published in Nature identified important limitations to debunking false content online. The report found that using online search to evaluate the truthfulness of false news articles often actually increases the probability of believing them.
In other words, asking a search engine if the COVID-19 vaccine causes VAIDS makes it likelier the searcher will believe the claim that the vaccine does cause VAIDS, due to the low-quality sources surfaced in search results that provide supporting evidence for false claims.
“Our results indicate that those who search online to evaluate misinformation risk falling into data voids, or informational spaces in which there is corroborating evidence from low-quality sources,” the researchers explained. “We also find consistent evidence that searching online to evaluate news increases belief in true news from low-quality sources.”
The researchers also recommended the need for “search engines to invest in solutions to the challenges” of increased belief in false claims when evaluated using online search.
Low-Quality Search Results and Misinformation Rabbit Holes
Low-quality results from search engines promote user belief in false claims and can also lead users down dangerous new rabbit holes of misinformation. In May 2023, researchers from Princeton University and Microsoft used NewsGuard’s data to identify misinformation rabbit holes through referrals on news websites. The study found that “the incentives for unreliable sites to retain and monetize users create misinformation rabbit holes” — the idea that users browsing on unreliable news sites are likely to visit another page on the site, supporting another conspiracy theory, healthcare hoax or other false claim and led down a further “rabbit hole” of unreliable news.
These sites, the study found, are incentivized by advertising revenue to keep users on their sites for as long as possible and are better at retaining users than are reliable news sites. The study notes that “reliable sites rarely drive traffic to unreliable sites, suggesting that fact-checking drives little traffic to misinformation.”
