Behavioral Representation of Fake News

Fake news starts with emotional reactions, builds up, and often leads to personal attacks.

Phase 1: Incoming news

Two persons or groups of persons react to the news they obtained through their respective media: Facebook, X , other social media, TV, radio, websites. Each source of information contains biased opinions.

Phase 2: Consensus

The two persons or groups of persons can agree or disagree. If they disagree, we will enter phase 3, during which the conflict might rage.

If they agree, the consensus stops the heat from building up, and the news is accepted as real news. However, even if all parties believe the news they are receiving is not fake, it does not mean that it is not fake. Here are some things that explain that news labeled as not fake news can be fake news:

• In the early 12th century, most people in Europe agreed that Earth was the center of the universe and that the solar system rotated around the Earth.

• In 1900, most people believed that there would never be such a thing as an airplane that would fly over oceans.

• In January 2020, most Europeans believed that COVID-19 was a virus impacting only China and not a global pandemic.

The bottom line is that a consensus between two parties or even a society as a whole does not mean that the incoming news is true or false. If two parties disagree, this will lead to a conflict: