As a native Californian, Marketing Professor Sharmin Attaran, Ph.D., watched with concern as wildfires swept through the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods of Los Angeles in January 2025. 

Then she saw something online that made her heart skip a beat: an image of the famous Hollywood sign on fire. 

“I see the photo — flames tearing through the letters, smoke pouring into the sky,” she recalled. “I’m panicking. I have friends and family in LA — they need to evacuate. I need to warn them!”

As her fingers hovered over the social media “share” button, Attaran paused to reconsider. As someone familiar with the geography of Los Angeles, she realized that fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades were unlikely to have spread to Hollywood, about 20 miles away.

“I took a moment, and I checked” on the image, Attaran related during a TEDxURI 2025 presentation in April titled, “The Battle for Truth in a Viral World.” 

The photo turned out to be fake. 

“Someone had edited the image and posted it online,” she said. “But by the time I figured that out, it had already gone viral: The image gathered more than 100,000 views before it was taken down.”

Misinformation, which can spread like wildfire, does more than instill momentary annoyance or panic. It can also have devastating real-world consequences, said Attaran.

“We’re not just talking about fake photos,” she said. “During real California wildfires, false evacuation orders spread across neighborhoods. Families fled homes that weren’t in danger. Emergency responders were misdirected, all because of posts no one verified.”

Misinformation moves faster than the truth because it’s designed to, according to Attaran, who said understanding the appeal of misinformation is important to resisting its allure.

"It spreads because it grabs us emotionally and bypasses our logic,” aided by a phenomenon called ‘affect heuristic,’ a mental shortcut where judgments are based on emotions rather than analysis, Attaran explained.

“One emotion might be outrage, when we see fake headlines about political scandals or celebrity feuds,” she said. “Another might be fear, when we see false health claims or evacuation orders during crises.”

If you’ve fallen for misinformation, don’t feel too bad, said Attaran. It happens to everyone, and the way that social media tailors information to users’ preferences makes it even more tempting to share information without checking the source first.

“Social media platforms are not neutral — they’re engineered for attention, not for truth,” said Attaran. “Every time you engage with content, the algorithm learns. Every click, every share, every moment you pause on a post, it’s all data feeding the machine. More outrage? More clicks. More fear? More shares.”

"Every click, every share, every moment you pause on a post, it’s all data feeding the machine. More outrage? More clicks. More fear? More shares.”

Research shows that Facebook’s algorithm boosts false political content 60 percent more than facts, and that Twitter amplifies extreme voices over moderate ones. 

“The most shocking content wins — regardless of whether it’s true,” Attaran said. 

Our brains aren’t wired to facilitate objective assessments of information that’s tailor-made to appeal to us, she explained. 

“We have a mental shortcut called ‘cognitive ease’: The more we see something, the more familiar it becomes, and the truer it seems,” she said. “Soon, your feed becomes a mirror reflecting only what you already believe.”

Attaran said that while users may think a social media platform is delivering what they want, “it’s actually narrowing your view of the world” by serving only like-minded opinions – chosen by an algorithm. The net result is an echo chamber where “beliefs are amplified and rarely challenged.”

"The more we see something, the more familiar it becomes, and the truer it seems. Soon, your feed becomes a mirror reflecting only what you already believe.”

The first step toward breaking this misinformation cycle is to do what Attaran herself did when confronted by the burning Hollywood sign: slow down.

“Just a 20-second delay before sharing can reduce the spread of false content,” she said. “So, if something shocks, enrages, or excites you — pause. Be present in the real world before reacting to the digital one.”

Next, fact-check.

“It just takes 60 seconds to verify using tools like Google’s reverse image search,” she said. “If it’s fake, you’ll know fast.” 

Fact-checking sites like Snopes, Politifact, and FactCheck.org can help run down viral rumors, political claims, and fake news stories.

Gently calling people out for sharing misinformation also can be valuable, said Attaran. Instead of making accusations, however, ask questions like ‘Where did you see this?’ or ‘Did you check if it was true?’

“Just a 20-second delay before sharing can reduce the spread of false content."

“No one wants to be proven wrong,” she said. “Studies show that people reconsider false information when they’re invited to be part of the fact-finding process. People are more open when they feel curious, not shamed or judged.”

Attaran said each individual needs to decide whether they are going to be passive consumers of information or defenders of truth.

“Misinformation is distorting facts. It’s shaping policy. It’s influencing elections. It’s rewriting history in real time,” she said. “If we let truth die, we don’t get it back. If we don’t act now, we’ll live in a world where truth doesn’t even matter anymore. And that’s not a world I want to live in.”

Ask, check, and verify, Attaran urged, “Because the only thing more powerful than misinformation is an informed mind that refuses to spread it.”