Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How To Fight It

Berinsky’s (political science, MIT; In Time of War) book encapsulates years of research on political rumor, which he defines as “an unsupported claim, often with conspiratorial edge.” The life cycle of a rumor is visually explained with a concentric image that includes creators at the center, expanding out to believers, the uncertain, and disbelievers. The book indicates that the creation of political rumors runs along partisan lines, with Republicans reportedly creating more rumors than Democrats. The book’s data is sound, and Berinsky’s dissertation-style narrative abounds with charts and graphs that extrapolate the evidence, but the examples are more than a decade old: Obama’s birth certificate, the Affordable Care Act, weapons of mass destruction, and John Kerry’s war service record, for example. Even the chapters on Trump focus on information collected before the 2016 primary.