Social Media Influencers and Misinformation
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The Last Show with David Cooper. Procrastinate your life away with us. influencers online they try to sell us leggings protein powder skin care enlargement pills for certain body parts but what happens when they start selling us misinformation well a new study says the followers of influencers the people online in their community don't just listen to them but based on what they're told they can rally they can amplify sometimes they can even go on the attack i am here with marketing professor at cardiff business school in wales john domenico d domenico or gd GD, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, David.
When people hear about misinformation online, I think a lot of them think of trolls or bots or really controversial stuff. But influencers online, they can engage in it as well. What are some examples or what are some ways in which someone on my Instagram or my TikTok feed might engage in misinformation?
Yeah. I mean, we used to think that, you know, misinformation is something fringe, you know, just tin hat people would just, you know, believe in fringe and strange conspiracies.
What role do social media influencers play in spreading misinformation?
But actually, it's more pervasive than we think. I remember one example that I studied in my recent paper, that there was this influencer that shared a picture of Louis Vuitton, the luxury brand, And then the caption said, did you know that Louis Vuitton funded human shoes in the 19th century? So, you know, just to make people very, very upset. So it is really varied. Misinformation can really be anything. I remember this other bit where a gaming influencer just vaped smoke into a... a console, it was a PlayStation. So kind of faking malfunctioning and it was fake. So that's misinformation as well. It's super pervasive and it really can be about everything. So it's not just about political issues. It's not just about social issues, but can be about brands.
It can be about health, which is kind of the most dangerous probably. But yeah, it's everything.
And in your study, what counts as toxicity when it comes to misinformation? Are we talking insults, pylons, mob outrage? Like what is toxic behavior of the followers or the influencer themselves look like?
Yeah, that's all of that. So we basically used an API from Google that measures toxicity in speech. So now toxicity in speech can be classified as insults, swear words, extreme kind of names given to the person. So like, you know, You effing stupid.
Yeah, we understand profanity, GD.
Yeah, exactly. That's it. So, yeah. And one might expect, you know, misinformation is something that is... is extreme, is highly polarizing, is emotional. So you expect there to be toxicity. It's something that is designed to make people angry. But yeah, what we find is that not all the sources of misinformation make people angry in the same way.
So how does this happen? Suppose I really like video games and I watch someone online who either plays or posts videos about them, posts videos of themselves talking. Why am I likely to believe things that they're saying that aren't true or toxic? Is it because I feel like I know this video game influencer even though I've never met them?
Spot on. That's what is called parasocial relationship, which was actually the word of the year 2025. And I'm super nerdy about words of the year in December. But yeah, that's exactly it. So influences are people that are part of our daily life. And they let us in their daily life. So we feel this kind of close connection to them. We feel like we know them, that they are our friends, that they are people that will never betray us, will never sell us something that is wrong or is misleading. And usually influencers are people that are specialized in a niche or some of, you know, on a specific topic or a specific product.
What are some examples of misinformation shared by influencers?
So you have political influencers, right or left leaning. You have... fashion influencers, you have gaming influencers, and that's based on your tastes. You might find yourself being very attached to one of them because you share ideas, you share worldviews, you share perspectives, and it's very easy.
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