Negativity spread like a virus long before social media. This new paper in Nature Magazine used epidemiological models to explain the viral spread of rumors during France’s Great Fear of 1789:… | Steve Rathje

Negativity spread like a virus long before social media. This new paper in Nature Magazine used epidemiological models to explain the viral spread of rumors during France’s Great Fear of 1789: https://lnkd.in/eHV8VPPx Rumor spread was more likely in certain contexts (towns with higher wheat prices, greater inequality, more literacy, better road connections, etc.). In other words, psychological and structural factors interacted to shape information spread, as Jay Van Bavel, PhD and I discussed in our recent paper on the psychology of virality: https://lnkd.in/eFhQE8cH