Companies inadvertently fund online misinformation despite consumer backlash.

The financial motivation to earn advertising revenue has been widely conjectured to be pivotal for the production of online misinformation1-4. Research aimed at mitigating misinformation has so far focused on interventions at the user level5-8, with little emphasis on how the supply of misinformation can itself be countered. Here we show how online misinformation is largely financed by advertising, examine how financing misinformation affects the companies involved, and outline interventions for reducing the financing of misinformation. First, we find that advertising on websites that publish misinformation is pervasive for companies across several industries and is amplified by digital advertising platforms that algorithmically distribute advertising across the web. Using an information-provision experiment9, we find that companies that advertise on websites that publish misinformation can face substantial backlash from their consumers. To examine why misinformation continues to be monetized despite the potential backlash for the advertisers involved, we survey decision-makers at companies. We find that most decision-makers are unaware that their companies' advertising appears on misinformation websites but have a strong preference to avoid doing so. Moreover, those who are unaware and uncertain about their company's role in financing misinformation increase their demand for a platform-based solution to reduce monetizing misinformation when informed about how platforms amplify advertising placement on misinformation websites. We identify low-cost, scalable information-based interventions to reduce the financial incentive to misinform and counter the supply of misinformation online.

Defining a cognitive function decrement in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Although cognitive impairment is described as a core component of the characterization of schizophrenia, a sizable percentage of patients are classified as unimpaired by traditional definitions of impairment. The purpose of this study was to determine the percentage of patients with schizophrenia meeting criteria for a "cognitive function decrement" defined as a current level of cognitive function that falls below the level predicted by premorbid estimates. METHODS: Linear regression analyses were performed on a healthy control population to determine a predicted composite cognitive score based on maternal education, paternal education, and reading score as indicators of premorbid intellectual function. The percentages of patients with current cognitive function above and below predicted values were calculated. RESULTS: When the Wide Range Achievement Test-3 (WRAT-3) score and maternal education are both used to predict current cognitive performance, as expected, about half (42%) of control subjects fall below expectations. However, 98.1 % of patients fall below expectations. CONCLUSIONS: When cognitive function decrement is defined as a failure to reach the expected level of cognitive functioning, almost all patients with schizophrenia meet this definition.