Have you ever been outraged by something you read on social media? Did your sense of indignation have you reaching for the “share” or “re-post” button to alert others to the injustice? Many people fall victim to a key weapon used by those who spread fake news and misinformation online. A study has found that if a post or headline is designed to provoke a sense of “moral outrage”, people are much more likely to share and spread that post without first checking whether it is true or even reading the information.

The tactic is deployed by those who compose “outrage-evoking headlines” that do not accurately reflect the truth of a story or issue, because they know “outrage is associated with increased engagement online”.

“Outrage facilitates the spread of misinformation”, researchers from Princeton University found, adding that “people are more likely to share outrage-evoking misinformation without reading it first”. Their study, published in the journal Science, said: “Outrage is defined as the mix of anger and disgust triggered by perceived moral transgression.” Someone who holds a strong view on an issue may share an “outrage-evoking” headline that appears to support their stance, without knowing or caring whether that information is true, as long as it backs up their position.

The researchers conducted eight studies using more than one million links posted on Facebook and more than 44,000 posts on X to analyse the level of engagement for different kinds of information and headlines.

They concluded: “Misinformation sources evoke more outrage than trustworthy news sources. Outrage facilitates the spread of misinformation.

“[And] if caught sharing misinformation, users can claim that they merely intended to express that the content is ‘outrageous if true’.”