Debunking Rumors in Social Networks

In a joint paper with Nicole Tabasso (University of Surrey) we study the diffusion of a true message and a false message when agents can debunk the false rumor through costly verification and invest in socialization. Surprisingly, the diffusion of the false rumor can foster the diffusion of the true message by triggering verification. As a result, a decrease in the cost of verification can imply a decrease of the diffusion of the true message via a decrease of the diffusion of the false rumor; however, the relative prevalence of the truth vs. the rumor increases. When socialization becomes cheaper, verification increases; however, while both the prevalence of the true and the false message increase, their ratio does not change.