Investigation into the Spread of Misinformation about UK Prime Ministers on Twitter

TL;DR

This study analyzes how misinformation about UK Prime Ministers spreads on Twitter, highlighting the use of authority bias by individuals falsely claiming reputable professions to increase credibility.

Contribution

It uncovers the prevalence of profession-misinformation tactics on Twitter and quantifies the extent of false professional claims in misinformation campaigns.

Findings

3.1% of retweeters claimed to be teachers or lecturers

20.7% of those claiming professions in bios were in these fields

Profession claims were disproportionately higher than actual population statistics

Abstract

Misinformation presents threats to societal mental well-being, public health initiatives, as well as satisfaction in democracy. Those who spread misinformation can leverage cognitive biases to make others more likely to believe and share their misinformation unquestioningly. For example, by sharing misinformation whilst claiming to be someone from a highly respectable profession, a propagandist may seek to increase the effectiveness of their campaign using authority bias. Using retweet data from the spread of misinformation about two former UK Prime Ministers (Boris Johnson and Theresa May), we find that 3.1% of those who retweeted such misinformation claimed to be teachers or lecturers (20.7% of those who claimed to have a profession in their Twitter bio field in our sample), despite such professions representing under 1.15% of the UK population. Whilst polling data shows teachers and healthcare workers are amongst the most trusted professions in society, these were amongst the most popular professions that those in our sample claimed to have.