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Complete

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The virulent spread of misinformation on social media is a burning issue today given its catastrophic impact on everything from political agendas to public sentiment to social movements. As a result, researchers continue to examine why and how misinformation spreads on social media to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and how it can be contained. In this paper, we take a cognitive processing approach to understanding the spread of misinformation on social media. We argue that the basic architecture of major social media platforms, which are designed for social interactions and not deep thinking, perpetuates the type of cognitive processing and issues that inevitably lead to the spreading of misinformation. Therefore, addressing the issue would require redesigning the social media architecture based on cognitive theories.

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1073

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Aug 16th, 12:00 AM

A Cognitive Look at Social Media’s Architecture and its Impact on the Spread of Misinformation

The virulent spread of misinformation on social media is a burning issue today given its catastrophic impact on everything from political agendas to public sentiment to social movements. As a result, researchers continue to examine why and how misinformation spreads on social media to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and how it can be contained. In this paper, we take a cognitive processing approach to understanding the spread of misinformation on social media. We argue that the basic architecture of major social media platforms, which are designed for social interactions and not deep thinking, perpetuates the type of cognitive processing and issues that inevitably lead to the spreading of misinformation. Therefore, addressing the issue would require redesigning the social media architecture based on cognitive theories.