eprintid: 2800
rev_number: 12
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/28/00
datestamp: 2015-11-02 14:08:08
lastmod: 2016-05-23 09:05:25
status_changed: 2015-11-02 14:08:08
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Bessi, Alessandro
creators_name: Coletto, Mauro
creators_name: Davidescu, George Alexandru
creators_name: Scala, Antonio
creators_name: Caldarelli, Guido
creators_name: Quattrociocchi, Walter
creators_id: 
creators_id: mauro.coletto@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: guido.caldarelli@imtlucca.it
creators_id: walter.quattrociocchi@imtlucca.it
title: Science vs Conspiracy: Collective Narratives in the Age of Misinformation
ispublished: pub
subjects: GT
subjects: H1
subjects: HA
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: public
abstract: The large availability of user provided contents on online social media facilitates people aggregation around shared beliefs, interests, worldviews and narratives. In spite of the enthusiastic rhetoric about the so called collective intelligence unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories—e.g., chemtrails, reptilians or the Illuminati—are pervasive in online social networks (OSN). In this work we study, on a sample of 1.2 million of individuals, how information related to very distinct narratives—i.e. main stream scientific and conspiracy news—are consumed and shape communities on Facebook. Our results show that polarized communities emerge around distinct types of contents and usual consumers of conspiracy news result to be more focused and self-contained on their specific contents. To test potential biases induced by the continued exposure to unsubstantiated rumors on users’ content selection, we conclude our analysis measuring how users respond to 4,709 troll information—i.e. parodistic and sarcastic imitation of conspiracy theories. We find that 77.92 of likes and 80.86 of comments are from users usually interacting with conspiracy stories.
date: 2015
date_type: published
publication: PloS One
volume: 10
number: 2
publisher: Public Library of Science
pagerange: e0118093
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1932-6203
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0118093
projects: EU FET project MULTIPLEX Nr. 317532
projects: EU FET project SIMPOL Nr. 610704
citation:   Bessi, Alessandro and Coletto, Mauro and Davidescu, George Alexandru and Scala, Antonio and Caldarelli, Guido and Quattrociocchi, Walter  Science vs Conspiracy: Collective Narratives in the Age of Misinformation.  PloS One, 10 (2).  e0118093.  ISSN 1932-6203      (2015)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2800/1/science.pdf