* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Offset Is Ready To Finalize Divorce With Cardi B for a Major Reason – Yahoo

    Offset Poised to Finalize Divorce from Cardi B for a Major Reason

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Driving Entertainment and Education – Livability.com

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Transforming Entertainment and Education

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Reveals the Dark Challenges of Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    Is Light-Speed Analog Computing the Future of Technology? – BIOENGINEER.ORG

    Could Light-Speed Analog Computing Transform the Future of Technology?

    ARM Institute opens technology project call to speed submarine manufacturing – The Robot Report

    ARM Institute Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology Project to Revolutionize Submarine Manufacturing

    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Offset Is Ready To Finalize Divorce With Cardi B for a Major Reason – Yahoo

    Offset Poised to Finalize Divorce from Cardi B for a Major Reason

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Driving Entertainment and Education – Livability.com

    Beyond the Stage: 8 Performing Arts Centers Transforming Entertainment and Education

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Row K Entertainment Emerges as Major New Hollywood Buyer With Splashy TIFF Shopping Spree – TheWrap

    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Reveals the Dark Challenges of Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

    Is Light-Speed Analog Computing the Future of Technology? – BIOENGINEER.ORG

    Could Light-Speed Analog Computing Transform the Future of Technology?

    ARM Institute opens technology project call to speed submarine manufacturing – The Robot Report

    ARM Institute Unveils Cutting-Edge Technology Project to Revolutionize Submarine Manufacturing

    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

AI Tool Predicts Whether Online Health Misinformation Will Cause Real-World Harm

May 19, 2024
in Science
AI Tool Predicts Whether Online Health Misinformation Will Cause Real-World Harm
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

AI Tool Predicts Whether Online Health Misinformation Will Cause Real-World Harm

A new AI-based analytical technique reveals that specific language phrasing in Reddit misinformation posts foretold people rejecting COVID vaccinations

By Joanna Thompson

Photo illustration, interface of 'Reddit' is being displayed on a mobile phone screen in front of a red background

Ahmet Serdar Eser/Anadolu via Getty Images

The flood of misinformation online inevitably produces adverse consequences in key measures of public health—and death from COVID among unvaccinated people stands out as perhaps the most prominent example. That cause-and-effect relationship—that scrolling through endless postings about hydroxyquinoline, ivermectin and vaccine conspiracies can lead people astray—seems more than obvious. But it isn’t straightforward to determine scientifically.

Clear linkages between misinformation and adverse consequences have proved very difficult to find—partly because of the complexity of analyzing the workings of a public health system and partly because most social media companies do not usually allow independent outside parties to analyze their data. One exception to keeping data off-limits is Reddit, a platform that has begun to emerge as a place where, with the company’s blessing, social media research can flourish. Now studies using Reddit posts may be putting scientists closer to finding the misinformation missing link.

A new analytical framework that combines elements of social psychology with the computational power of a large language model (LLM) could help bridge the gap between online rhetoric and real-world behavior. These results were recently posted to the preprint server arXiv.org and presented at the Association of Computing Machinery CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Hawaii this week.

On supporting science journalism

If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Eugenia Rho, a computer scientist at Virginia Tech and senior author of the new study, wanted to pin down whether a tie exists between people’s behavior and the type of language encountered on a site such as Reddit.

Along with her Ph.D. student Xiaohan Ding and their colleagues, Rho began her research by first tracking down thousands of Reddit posts from banned forums opposing vaccines and COVID prevention measures. Next, the team trained an LLM to recognize the “gist” of each post—the message’s underlying meaning, as opposed to the literal words it is composed of. “That’s sort of the secret sauce here,” says Valerie Reyna, a psychologist at Cornell University and a co-author of the study.

“Fuzzy-trace theory” suggests that people pay more attention to the implications of a piece of information than to its literal meaning. This helps explain why people are more likely to remember an anecdote about someone getting robbed than a dry statistic about crime rates or why gamblers are more apt to place a bet when folding is framed as possibly losing them money rather than potentially gaining it. “People are more moved by certain kinds of messages than others,” says Reyna, who helped pioneer fuzzy-trace theory in the 1990s.

This careful choice of wording enhances persuasiveness. “Over and over and over, studies show that language in the form of a gist is stickier,” Rho says. Her team’s analysis found that in the context of social media, this seems to be especially true for causal gists, or information that implies a direct link between two events. A post might link vaccinations with getting sick in a specific format, using wording that packs a lot of rhetorical punch. For example, one Reddit user posted, “Had my Pfizer jab last [Wednesday] and have felt like death since.” Rho’s team found that every time the causal gists in anti-COVID posts grew stronger, COVID hospitalizations and deaths spiked nationwide, even when the Reddit forums were subsequently banned. The researchers pulled their data from nearly 80,000 posts spanning 20 subreddits active between May 2020 and October 2021.

By using this newly developed framework to monitor social media activity, scientists might be able to anticipate the real-world health outcomes of future pandemics—or even other major events, such as elections. “In principle, it can be applied to any context in which decisions are made,” Reyna says.

But such a framework might not make equally good predictions across the board. “When there is no discernible gist, the approach might be less successful,” says Christopher Wolfe, a cognitive psychologist at Miami University in Ohio, who was not involved in the study. This could be the case for studying the behavior of people seeking treatment for common health issues, such as breast cancer, or trying to view sporadic ephemeral events, such as auroras.

And the approach doesn’t necessarily distinguish what specific type of cause-and-effect relationship exists. “It seems that gists from social media may predict health decisions and outcomes, but the reverse is true as well,” says Rebecca Weldon, a cognitive psychologist at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, who did not contribute to the new research. Rather it suggests that the relationship between social media rhetoric and real-world behavior may be more of a feedback loop, with each one strengthening and reinforcing the other.

Both Wolfe and Weldon praised the authors for their innovative analytical approach. Wolfe calls the framework a potential “game changer” for helping navigate complex information ecosystems online. And Rho’s team hopes that it can help large social media companies and public health officials come together to develop more effective strategies for moderating content. After all, being able to identify the type of misinformation most able to influence people’s behavior is the first step toward being able to combat it.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Scientific American – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-tool-predicts-whether-online-health-misinformation-will-cause-real-world/

Tags: PredictsscienceWhether
Previous Post

How Can You ‘See’ a Black Hole?

Next Post

Hurricanes Caused Lost Income among at Least Half of Local Residents

Welcome Home: World Aquatics Breaks Ground on Future Headquarters in Budapest – World Aquatics

Welcome Home: World Aquatics Breaks Ground on New Headquarters in Budapest

October 8, 2025
New Zealand Surprises With Larger Rate Cut as Economic Concerns Mount – Bloomberg.com

New Zealand Surprises Markets with Larger-Than-Expected Rate Cut Amid Rising Economic Concerns

October 8, 2025
Offset Is Ready To Finalize Divorce With Cardi B for a Major Reason – Yahoo

Offset Poised to Finalize Divorce from Cardi B for a Major Reason

October 8, 2025
Health Rounds: Genetics play a role in higher depression risk for women – Reuters

How Genetics Shape Depression Risk in Women: What Everyone Should Understand

October 8, 2025
October 7, 2025 – Federal government shutdown – CNN

October 7, 2025 – Federal government shutdown – CNN

October 8, 2025
Blackwater photos suggest new symbiosis between fish and anemones – EurekAlert!

Breathtaking Blackwater Photos Unveil an Unexpected Alliance Between Fish and Anemones

October 8, 2025
WATCH LIVE: The winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry is… – PBS

Breaking News: Unveiling the Latest Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry!

October 8, 2025
Soar through a 1,000-mile-long maze on Mars in this mesmerizing new satellite video – Live Science

Discover a Breathtaking 1,000-Mile-Long Maze on Mars in This Mesmerizing New Satellite Video

October 8, 2025
Video: Dog Sighs in Different Situations Like ‘He Works 9-5′ – Yahoo

Watch This Dog’s Hilarious Sighs That Perfectly Capture Everyday Life Moments

October 8, 2025
US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

US and investors gambling on unproven nuclear technology, warn experts – Financial Times

October 8, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (857)
  • Economy (878)
  • Entertainment (21,751)
  • General (17,479)
  • Health (9,920)
  • Lifestyle (890)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (879)
  • Politics (889)
  • Science (16,088)
  • Sports (21,378)
  • Technology (15,858)
  • World (861)

Recent News

Welcome Home: World Aquatics Breaks Ground on Future Headquarters in Budapest – World Aquatics

Welcome Home: World Aquatics Breaks Ground on New Headquarters in Budapest

October 8, 2025
New Zealand Surprises With Larger Rate Cut as Economic Concerns Mount – Bloomberg.com

New Zealand Surprises Markets with Larger-Than-Expected Rate Cut Amid Rising Economic Concerns

October 8, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version