别让谣言跑得比真相快

今天下午，《中国民航报》就发布黑匣子失实消息道歉，全文如下：由于我们的工作失误，核实相关事实不严谨，今天上午错误地发出了关于找到第二个黑匣子的失实消息，特向读者郑重致歉！

新闻的三大基本特征：

真实性、时效性、准确性

2018年，一项发表于《科学》（Science）的研究发现，谣言比真相传播得更快更远。数据表明，假新闻被转发的几率比真实新闻高了70%左右。

“当真相还在穿鞋的时候，谣言已经跑遍了半个地球。”——马克·吐温

无注释原文：

‘News’ spreads faster and more widely when it’s false

NATURE

08 March 2018

Fake news spreads faster and more widely than true news, according to a study examining how 126,000 news items circulated among 3 million Twitter users.

“This is the most comprehensive descriptive account of true and false information spreading on social media that we have to date”, says Dean Eckles, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge (MIT) who was not involved in the work.

Untrue ‘news’ is as old as gossip, but its proliferation has become particularly troubling in the era of social media. False stories amplified on Facebook and Twitter, such as the claim that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy for the US presidency, have been implicated in tilting election outcomes.

The role of false stories in Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 election victory or the UK’s Brexit vote, for example, is subject to intense debate. Part of the answer hinges on understanding how fake news travels, say Sinan Aral and his team at MIT, whose study was published in Science on 8 March.

They classified news spread on Twitter as “true” or “false”, according to cross-checks using information from six established fact-checking sources. In this way, they investigated the dissemination of 126,000 news items among 3 million Twitter users between 2006 and 2017, using data supplied by the company.

Their analysis showed that news stories deemed to be true, with 95–98% agreement among fact-checkers, spread more slowly than false stories, and reached fewer people.

Even the most popular true news stories rarely reached more than 1,000 people, whereas the top 1% of false news stories reached between 1,000 and 100,000 people. False news that reached 1,500 people did so six times faster than did true stories. And falsities were 70% more likely to be retweeted than truths, according to a model of the data.

Aral’s team used software to spot automated ‘bot’ accounts on Twitter, which have been suspected of distorting the way in which news travels. But even with those data removed, fake news generated by people rather than bots still spread faster than truth, showing that this property stems from human behaviour.

To understand why, the researchers quantified the “novelty” of tweets and found that false news items stood out among a random corpus of tweets. An analysis of the words in the tweets suggested that false news instilled fear, disgust and surprise, whereas true news was more likely to arouse feelings including sadness, joy and trust.

These features, especially the greater “novelty”, might be expected to draw more attention to false news, the researchers say.

Could the study’s findings mean that there is a ‘fake news’ formula, just waiting to be exploited? Unlikely, says Duncan Watts, a specialist in social networks at Microsoft Research in New York. Earlier work has suggested that it is hard to link a particular story’s penetration to its content, and Watts thinks it would be difficult to predict how specific stories will spread.

Watts does not dispute that fake news is a problem, but he says it must be taken with a grain of salt. Other studies confirm that most people, overwhelmingly consume legitimate news from mainstream sources, he says. “I think that panicking about fake news on Twitter is the wrong reaction.”

- ◆ -

注：中文文本为机器翻译仅供参考，并非一一对应

含注释全文：

‘News’ spreads faster and more widely when it’s false

NATURE

08 March 2018

Fake news spreads faster and more widely than true news, according to a study examining how 126,000 news items circulated among 3 million Twitter users.

根据一项研究，假新闻比真新闻传播得更快、更广，该研究分析了126,000条新闻如何在300万推特（Twitter）用户中传播。

circulate有“（使）循环；（使）流通；（使）传递；（使）散布”的含义（if a story, an idea, information, etc. circulates or if you circulate it, it spreads or it is passed from one person to another），举个🌰：

Rumours began to circulate about his financial problems.

有关他财务困难的谣言开始流传开来。

🎬电影《拉瑞·克劳》（Larry Crowne）中的台词提到：If gossip of this nature were to circulate, 如果这种性质的八卦流传开来，

“This is the most comprehensive descriptive account of true and false information spreading on social media that we have to date”, says Dean Eckles, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge (MIT) who was not involved in the work.

没有参与这项工作的美国剑桥市麻省理工学院（MIT）社会科学家迪安·埃克斯（Dean Eckles）说：“这是迄今为止我们对社交媒体上真实和虚假信息传播最全面的解释说明。”

表示“报道；报告；记述；描述”，英文解释为“a written or spoken description of an event”举个🌰：

She gave a thrilling account of her life in the jungle.

她把自己在丛林中生活的经历描述得惊险刺激。

Untrue ‘news’ is as old as gossip, but its proliferation has become particularly troubling in the era of social media. False stories amplified on Facebook and Twitter, such as the claim that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy for the US presidency, have been implicated in tilting election outcomes.

假“新闻”与八卦新闻一样古老，但在社交媒体时代，它的传播已经变得尤为令人担忧。在脸书和推特上被放大的虚假报道，如教皇弗朗西斯（Pope Francis）支持唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）竞选美国总统的说法，已经影响到选举结果的偏向。

gossip /ˈɡɒsɪp/ 表示“流言飞语；闲言碎语”，英文解释为“informal talk or stories about other people's private lives, that may be unkind or not true”。

proliferation /prəˌlɪfəˈreɪʃn/表示“激增；涌现；增殖；大量的事物”，英文解释为“the sudden increase in the number or amount of sth; a large number of a particular thing”如：a proliferation of personal computers 个人电脑的激增。

熟词僻义，可以表示“新闻报道”，英文解释为“a report in a newspaper, magazine or news broadcast”如：a front-page story 头版报道。

表示“增强，放大”，英文解释为“To amplify something means to increase its strength or intensity.”举个🌰：

These stories only amplified her fears.

这些故事徒增了她的恐惧感。

endorse 动词，1）表示“（公开）赞同，支持，认可”，英文解释为“to say publicly that you support a person, statement or course of action”举个🌰：

I wholeheartedly endorse his remarks.

我真诚地赞同他的话。

2）表示“（在广告中）宣传，代言（某一产品）”，英文解释为“to say in an advertisement that you use and like a particular product so that other people will want to buy it”；

3）表示“（在支票背面）签名，背书”，英文解释为“to write your name on the back of a cheque so that it can be paid into a bank account”；

🎬电影《侏罗纪公园》（Jurassic Park）中的台词提到：After careful consideration, I've decided not to endorse your park. 仔细考虑以后 我决定不为你的公园背书。

⚠️这里补充一下，看到上面的「背书」你可能疑惑了，除了在金融上的含义，现在往往被用于政治领域。

📍例如，新华网2020年4月份一则新闻标题就为「奥巴马“背书”拜登」讲的就是奥巴马发声力挺拜登。

candidacy /ˈkændɪdəsɪ/ 表示“候选资格；候选人之身份”，英文解释为“Someone's candidacy is their position of being a candidate in an election.”如：to announce/declare/withdraw your candidacy for the post 宣布/宣告/撤销职位候选人资格。

🎬电影《星际迷航》（Star Trek）中的台词提到：Respectfully I would like to submit my candidacy. 我在此不才自荐。

表示“牵连，涉及”，英文解释为“to show that someone is involved in a crime or partly responsible for something bad that has happened”举个🌰：

Have they any evidence to implicate him in the robbery?

他们有证据表明他涉嫌抢劫案吗？

📍be implicated in表示“牵涉其中的；负有责任的”，英文解释为“If someone or something is implicated in a crime or a bad situation, they are involved in it or responsible for it.”

1）表示“（使）倾斜”，英文解释为“to (cause to) move into a sloping position”举个🌰：

He tilted his chair backwards and put his feet up on his desk.

他把椅子向后倾，双脚搁在书桌上。

2）表示“使倾向于；使向…倾斜；偏向”，英文解释为“to make sth/sb change slightly so that one particular opinion, person, etc. is preferred or more likely to succeed than another; to change in this way”举个🌰：

The conditions may tilt the balance in favour of the runners.

这些条件可能对赛跑运动员有利。

Popular opinion has tilted in favour of him.

公众舆论已倒向他一边。

The role of false stories in Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 election victory or the UK’s Brexit vote, for example, is subject to intense debate. Part of the answer hinges on understanding how fake news travels, say Sinan Aral and his team at MIT, whose study was published in Science on 8 March.

例如，虚假报道在唐纳德·特朗普2016年出人意料的胜选或英国脱欧投票中的作用，受到了激烈的争论。麻省理工学院的西楠·阿拉尔（Sinan Aral）和他的团队说，部分答案取决于了解假新闻是如何传播的，他们的研究于3月8日发表在《科学》（Science）上。

1）表示“受…支配；服从于”，英文解释为“under the authority of sth/sb”举个🌰：

All nuclear installations are subject to international safeguards.

一切核设施均须执行国际防护措施。

2）表示“取决于；视…而定”，英文解释为“depending on sth in order to be completed or agreed”举个🌰：

The article is ready to publish, subject to your approval.

那篇文章准备好了，可以发表，就等你批准了。

3）表示“可能受…影响的；易遭受…的；承受，有”，英文解释为“likely to be affected by sth, especially sth bad”举个🌰：

Flights are subject to delay because of the fog.

由于有雾，航班可能延误。

In recent years, she has been subject to attacks of depression.

近年来，她一直饱受抑郁症的折磨。 

🎬电影《鹰眼》（Eagle Eye）中的台词提到：Unattended luggage is subject to collection and search by the airport police. 无人看管的行李会被机场警方托收并检查。

📍subject也可以直接作动词，subject sb/sth to sth，be subjected to，表示“使经受，使遭受”，英文解释为“to make someone or something experience an unpleasant or worrying thing”举个🌰：

The investigation found that they had been subjected to unfair treatment.

调查发现他们曾受到过不公正待遇。

1）表示“依靠，取决于”，英文解释为“If one thing hinges on another, the first thing depends on the second thing or is very influenced by it.”举个🌰：

The prosecution's case hinged on the evidence of a witness who died before the trial.

控方的案子取决于一位证人的证词，而该证人已在审判前死去。

2）表示“（故事或情况）围绕着…展开”，英文解释为“If a story or situation hinges on an idea or subject, it develops from that idea or that is the most important subject in it.”举个🌰：

The film's plot hinges on a case of mistaken identity.

该电影的情节围绕着一宗身份误认案展开。

📍2019政府工作报告中英文对照注释版中提到：绿色发展人人有责，贵在行动、成在坚持。Promoting green development is down to every last one of us; its success hinges on action and commitment.

They classified news spread on Twitter as “true” or “false”, according to cross-checks using information from six established fact-checking sources. In this way, they investigated the dissemination of 126,000 news items among 3 million Twitter users between 2006 and 2017, using data supplied by the company.

他们根据使用六个知名的事实核查源的信息进行交叉验证，将Twitter上传播的新闻分为“真实”或“虚假”。通过这种方式，他们使用推特提供的数据，调查了2006年至2017年期间在300万推特用户中传播的126,000条新闻。

表示“将…分类，将…归类；把…分级”，英文解释为“to divide things into groups according to their type”举个🌰：

The books in the library are classified by/according to subject.

图书馆的书是按照学科分类的。

established形容词，1）可以表示“（因为优秀而）被认可的，著名的”，英文解释为“used for describing someone who is known for doing a job well, because they have been doing it for a long time”，如：an established artist/star 著名艺术家/明星。

2）表示“（因长期存在而）已确立的；被承认的；既定的”，英文解释为“accepted or respected because of having existed for a long period of time”举个🌰：

There are established procedures for dealing with emergencies.

处理紧急情况有一些既定程序。

dissemination /dɪˌsem.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ 名词，动词形式disseminate /dɪˈsɛmɪˌneɪt/ 表示“散布；传播”，英文解释为“To disseminate information or knowledge means to distribute it so that it reaches many people or organizations.”举个🌰：

Their findings have been widely disseminated.

他们的研究成果已经广为传播。

🎬电影《疯狂父母》（Mom and Dad）第五季中的台词提到：the last thing we want to do is disseminate any information 我们要做的最后一件事是传播信息。

🎬电影《美国队长3：英雄内战》（Captain America: Civil War）第五季中的台词提到："To generate, disseminate..." and preserve knowledge. 生成、传播，保护知识。

Their analysis showed that news stories deemed to be true, with 95–98% agreement among fact-checkers, spread more slowly than false stories, and reached fewer people.

他们的分析表明，被认为是真实的新闻报道，在事实核查人员中具有95-98%的一致性，比虚假报道的传播速度更慢，触达的人数也更少。

表示“认为; 相信”，英文解释为“If something is deemed to have a particular quality or to do a particular thing, it is considered to have that quality or do that thing.”举个🌰：

He says he would support the use of force if the UN deemed it necessary. 

他说如果联合国认为有必要，他就支持动用武力。

Even the most popular true news stories rarely reached more than 1,000 people, whereas the top 1% of false news stories reached between 1,000 and 100,000 people. False news that reached 1,500 people did so six times faster than did true stories. And falsities were 70% more likely to be retweeted than truths, according to a model of the data.

即使是最热门的真实新闻报道也很少能触达1,000人以上，而前1%的虚假新闻报道则触达了1,000到100,000人之间。触达1,500人的虚假新闻比真实报道快六倍。根据一个数据模型，虚假新闻被转发的可能性比真实新闻高70%。

表示“尽管；但是；却”，英文解释为“compared with the fact that; but”举个🌰：

He must be about 40, whereas his wife looks about 30.

他肯定有40岁上下了，可他妻子看起来只有30岁左右。

tweet作名词，表示“发布在推特上的信息”，其实指的就是“推文”，英文解释为“a short remark or piece of information published on Twitter”；作动词，指的就是“发推文，发推特”（to publish a short remark or piece of information on Twitter），retweet就是转发推文，举个🌰：

He tweeted that he was just about to meet the president.

他发推特说自己即将见到总统。

Aral’s team used software to spot automated ‘bot’ accounts on Twitter, which have been suspected of distorting the way in which news travels. But even with those data removed, fake news generated by people rather than bots still spread faster than truth, showing that this property stems from human behaviour.

阿拉尔的团队使用软件来发现推特上的自动“机器人”账户，这些账户被怀疑使新闻传播的方式失真。但即使删除了这些数据，由人而非机器人产生的假新闻仍然比真相传播得更快，这表明这一特性源于人类行为。

机器人账号 A bot account, also known as a fake account, is an account that has been automatically generated in order to deliver a message or publish information automatically. It can be used for marketing or political purposes.

表示“扭曲；使变形；歪曲”，英文解释为“to change something from its usual, original, natural, or intended meaning, condition, or shape”举个🌰：

My original statement has been completely distorted by the media.

我最初的说法被媒体彻底歪曲了。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述疫情对全球经济影响的文章中提到：However, though that would provide a brief stimulus, it is a recipe for distorted markets, moral hazard and low growth. 尽管这会带来短暂的刺激，却会导致市场扭曲、道德风险和增长低迷。

表示“源自；由…造成”，英文解释为“to start or develop as the result of something”举个🌰：

Her problems stem from her difficult childhood.

她的问题主要是由艰难的童年生活造成的。

To understand why, the researchers quantified the “novelty” of tweets and found that false news items stood out among a random corpus of tweets. An analysis of the words in the tweets suggested that false news instilled fear, disgust and surprise, whereas true news was more likely to arouse feelings including sadness, joy and trust.

为了解原因，研究人员对推文的“新颖性”进行了量化，发现虚假新闻在随机的推文语料库中非常突出。对推文中词语的分析表明，假新闻会引起恐惧、厌恶和惊讶，而真实新闻则更有可能引起包括悲伤、喜悦和信任在内的感觉。

表示“以数量表述；量化”，英文解释为“to describe or express sth as an amount or a number”举个🌰：

It's difficult to quantify how many people will be affected by the change.

很难确定将有多少人受到该变化的影响。

表示“显眼，突出”，英文解释为“to be very noticeable”举个🌰：

The black lettering really stands out on that orange background.

黑色的字体在橙色的背景下非常醒目。

corpus /ˈkɔːpəs/ 表示“语料库”，英文解释为“a collection of written or spoken material stored on a computer and used to find out how language is used”举个🌰：

All the dictionary examples are taken from a corpus of billions of words.

字典中的所有例子都取自一个收录了数十亿词汇的语料库。

表示“逐渐灌输；逐步培养（感受、思想或行为）”，英文解释为“to put a feeling, idea, or principle gradually into someone's mind, so that it has a strong influence on the way that person thinks or behaves”举个🌰：

It is part of a teacher's job to instil confidence in/into his or her students.

教师的部分职责是逐渐培养学生的信心。

🎬电影《梅茜的世界》（What Maisie Knew）中的台词提到：They're supposed to instill cooperation and pacifism. 他们应该灌输了合作与和平主义思想。

表示“引起；唤起；激起”，英文解释为“to cause someone to have a particular feeling”举个🌰：

It's a subject that has aroused a lot of interest.

这个话题引起了很多人的兴趣。

These features, especially the greater “novelty”, might be expected to draw more attention to false news, the researchers say.

研究人员说，这些特征，尤其是更具“新颖性”，可能会吸引人们对虚假新闻的更多关注。

Could the study’s findings mean that there is a ‘fake news’ formula, just waiting to be exploited? Unlikely, says Duncan Watts, a specialist in social networks at Microsoft Research in New York. Earlier work has suggested that it is hard to link a particular story’s penetration to its content, and Watts thinks it would be difficult to predict how specific stories will spread.

这项研究的结果是否意味着存在一个“假新闻”公式，就等着被开发利用？纽约微软研究院的社交网络专家邓肯·瓦茨（Duncan Watts）说，这不太可能。早期的研究工作表明，很难将某一特定报道的渗透率与它的内容联系起来，沃茨认为很难预测特定报道将如何传播。

1）表示“惯例；配方；处方”，英文解释为“a standard or accepted way of doing or making something”举个🌰：

There's no magic formula for success.

成功没有窍门儿。

2）表示“公式，方程式”，英文解释为“a mathematical rule expressed in a set of numbers and letters”举个🌰：

He developed a formula for calculating the area of a triangle.

他发明了计算三角形面积的公式。

1）表示“利用；剥削（…为自己谋利）”，英文解释为“to treat a person or situation as an opportunity to gain an advantage for yourself”举个🌰：

He exploited his father's name to get himself a job.

他利用他父亲的名声为自己找到一份工作。

2）表示“开发，运用；利用；发挥”，英文解释为“to use sth well in order to gain as much from it as possible”举个🌰：

She fully exploits the humour of her role in the play.

她在剧中把她那个角色的幽默发挥得淋漓尽致。

🎬电影《惊天魔盗团》（Now You See Me）中的台词提到：What I hate is people who exploit other people. 我只是讨厌那些利用别人的人。

表示“进入；穿透”，英文解释为“a movement into or through something or someone”举个🌰：

The company is trying to increase its penetration of the market.

该公司正在努力扩大其市场份额。

Watts does not dispute that fake news is a problem, but he says it must be taken with a grain of salt. Other studies confirm that most people, overwhelmingly consume legitimate news from mainstream sources, he says. “I think that panicking about fake news on Twitter is the wrong reaction.”

瓦特并不否认假新闻是个问题，但他说必须谨慎对待。他说，其他研究证实，大多数人，看的是主流消息来源的合法新闻。“我认为，对推特上的假新闻感到恐慌是错误的反应。”

1）表示“对…提出质询；对…表示异议（或怀疑）”，英文解释为“to question whether sth is true and valid”举个🌰：

These figures have been disputed.

有人对这些数字提出了质疑。

2）表示“争论；辩论；争执”，英文解释为“to argue or disagree strongly with sb about sth, especially about who owns sth”举个🌰：

The issue remains hotly disputed.

这个问题至今仍在激烈地辩论中。

3）表示“争夺；竞争”，英文解释为“to fight to get control of sth or to win sth”。

🎬电影《地狱男爵2：黄金军团》（Hellboy II: The Golden Army）中的台词提到：Is there anyone here who would dispute my right? 有人想和我争权吗？

🎬电影《拜见岳父大人3》（Little Fockers）中的台词提到：While I dispute the findings, I appreciate the gesture. 虽然我对结果有质疑 我谢谢你们的好意。

take sth. with a grain/pinch of salt 表示“对…半信半疑，对…有所怀疑”，英文解释为“to not completely believe something that you are told, because you think it is unlikely to be true”举个🌰：

You have to take everything she says with a grain of salt, because she tends to exaggerate.

你不能完全相信她的话，她总是喜欢夸大其词。

overwhelmingly /ˌoʊvərˈwelmɪŋli/ 表示“压倒性地；不可抵抗地”，英文解释为“strongly or completely; in an overwhelming way”举个🌰：

The team were overwhelmingly defeated in yesterday's game.

在昨天的比赛中这支球队遭遇了惨败。

表示“合法的，正当的，法律允许的”，英文解释为“allowed by law”举个🌰：

Is his business strictly legitimate?

他的生意是否绝对合法？

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