TikTok is back at it again with fear causing misinformation. I mean, exploding trees? Really? Absurd as it sounds, this type of content thrives online. It’s not like anyone wants to be scared, but unfortunately, social media is designed in a way that incentivizes fear and dominates feeds every day.
Fearmongering, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is:
“The action of intentionally trying to make people afraid of something when this is not necessary or reasonable.”
On social media, fearmongering often appears as alarming headlines and dramatic warnings designed less to inform and more to trigger an emotional reaction. During the early days of COVID-19, fear of the virus spread so fast ****that people began to take unnecessary precautions such as washing plastic packaging and fresh produce with soap.
These behaviors were widely shared and reinforced throughout social media, causing high engagement.
This is only one example out of many. In general, content that sparks anxiety, outrage, or panic consistently outperforms content that provides trustworthy news.
In a joint study by Northwestern University and Princeton University, findings were that emotionally charged posts, especially those expressing fear, were significantly more likely to be shared across social media than factual information.
William Brady, co-lead author of the study at Northwestern, explains: