  Previous work suggests that people's preference for different kinds of
information depends on more than just accuracy. This could happen because the
messages contained within different pieces of information may either be
well-liked or repulsive. Whereas factual information must often convey
uncomfortable truths, misinformation can have little regard for veracity and
leverage psychological processes which increase its attractiveness and
proliferation on social media. In this review, we argue that when
misinformation proliferates, this happens because the social media environment
enables adherence to misinformation by reducing, rather than increasing, the
psychological cost of doing so. We cover how attention may often be shifted
away from accuracy and towards other goals, how social and individual cognition
is affected by misinformation and the cases under which debunking it is most
effective, and how the formation of online groups affects information
consumption patterns, often leading to more polarization and radicalization.
Throughout, we make the case that polarization and misinformation adherence are
closely tied. We identify ways in which the psychological cost of adhering to
misinformation can be increased when designing anti-misinformation
interventions or resilient affordances, and we outline open research questions
that the CSCW community can take up in further understanding this cost.
