Opinion Human or fish, no one is safe from fake news

It is no secret that humans are struggling with misinformation in the digital age. According to a study by researchers at Cornell University, fish, flies and bacteria experience it, too. For instance, as much as swimming together helps fish stay alert to predators, the study published in Interface notes how sometimes a fish can perceive a threat where there isn’t any, and make a run for it — and all others in the school follow. In species that live in big social networks, fake news seems unavoidable.

This may seem scary. But like in a vaccine, a speck of something bad can help build a greater resilience. In 1835, every town in the US was abuzz with a new discovery: The Sun, a two-year old “penny” newspaper in New York, republished six articles by astronomer Sir John Herschel in the Edinburgh Journal of Science, claiming that the Moon was covered in lush rivers and amethyst crystals, and was home to unicorns, “man-bats” and bipedal beavers. The “discoveries” were all fake, but “The Great Moon Hoax” led to the explosion of penny papers and helped create a new class of readers in the US. NYU mathematician and physicist Alan Sokal’s 1994 submission of a sham article to Social Text and its acceptance by the journal successfully drew attention to what he called the “decline of standards of rigour in the academic community”.

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If misinformation is unavoidable, wisdom lies in becoming more discerning. For fish and humans, one mantra could help: Don’t follow the herd, follow the science.