Lies travel better

“A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.”—Mark Twain.

Twain intuitively knew this to be true. Now it is provably true.

In 2018, researchers showed that false news spreads six times faster on Twitter.

My best guess is that the bad false news feeds our need for drama. Truth comes across as just-so, and does not trigger our addiction centres.