The global spread of misinformation on spiders

Stefano Mammola¹, Jagoba Malumbres-Olarte², Valeria Arabesky³, Diego Alejandro Barrales-Alcalá⁴, Aimee Lynn Barrion-Dupo⁵, Marco Antonio Benamú⁶, Tharina L Bird⁷, Maria Bogomolova⁸, Pedro Cardoso⁹, Maria Chatzaki¹⁰, Ren-Chung Cheng¹¹, Tien-Ai Chu¹¹, Leticia M Classen-Rodríguez¹², Iva Čupić¹³, Naufal Urfi Dhiya'ulhaq¹⁴, André-Philippe Drapeau Picard¹⁵, Hisham K El-Hennawy¹⁶, Mert Elverici¹⁷, Caroline S Fukushima⁹, Zeana Ganem¹⁸, Efrat Gavish-Regev¹⁹, Naledi T Gonnye²⁰, Axel Hacala²¹, Charles R Haddad²², Thomas Hesselberg²³, Tammy Ai Tian Ho²⁴, Thanakorn Into²⁵, Marco Isaia²⁶, Dharmaraj Jayaraman²⁷, Nanguei Karuaera²⁸, Rajashree Khalap²⁹, Kiran Khalap²⁹, Dongyoung Kim³⁰, Tuuli Korhonen⁹, Simona Kralj-Fišer³¹, Heidi Land³², Shou-Wang Lin³², Sarah Loboda³³, Elizabeth Lowe³⁴, Yael Lubin³⁵, Alejandro Martínez⁹, Zingisile Mbo²², Marija Miličić³⁶, Grace Mwende Kioko³⁷, Veronica Nanni³⁸, Yusoff Norma-Rashid³⁹, Daniel Nwankwo⁴⁰, Christina J Painting⁴¹, Aleck Pang⁴², Paolo Pantini⁴³, Martina Pavlek⁴⁴, Richard Pearce⁴⁵, Booppa Petcharad²⁵, Julien Pétillon⁴⁶, Onjaherizo Christian Raberahona⁴⁷, Philip Russo⁴⁸, Joni A Saarinen⁹, Laura Segura-Hernández⁴⁹, Lenka Sentenská⁵⁰, Gabriele Uhl³², Leilani Walker⁵¹, Charles M Warui⁵², Konrad Wiśniewski⁵³, Alireza Zamani⁵⁴, Angela Chuang⁵⁵, Catherine Scott³³

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Molecular Ecology Group (MEG), Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IRSA), Largo Tonolli 50, 28922 Verbania Pallanza, Italy. Electronic address: stefano.mammola@helsinki.fi.
² Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; CE3C - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, Portugal.
³ Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel; Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel.
⁴ Colección Nacional de Arácnidos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico.
⁵ Environmental Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences and Museum of Natural History, University of the Philippines Los Banos, 4031, Philippines.
⁶ Centro Universitario de Rivera, Universidad de la República, Uruguay; Lab. Ecotoxicología de Artrópodos Terrestres, Centro Univeritario de Rivera, Universidad de la República, Uruguay; Laboratorio Ecología del Comportamiento, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas clemente Estable (IIBCE), Uruguay.
⁷ Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, PO Box 4197, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa; Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa.
⁸ Freelance translator, Verbania Pallanza, Italy.
⁹ Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹⁰ Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
¹¹ Department of Life sciences, National Chung Hsing University, No.145 Xingda Rd., South Dist., Taichung City 402204, Taiwan.
¹² Department of Biology, Macelwane Hall, 3507 Laclede Avenue, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA.
¹³ Croatian Biospeleological Society, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb, Croatia.
¹⁴ Program Sarjana, Fakultas Biologi, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
¹⁵ Insectarium de Montréal, Espace pour la vie, 4101, rue Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, Québec, H1X 2B2, Canada.
¹⁶ Serket, Arachnid Collection of Egypt (ACE), Egypt.
¹⁷ Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Faculty of Science and Arts, Biology Department, 24002, Erzincan, Turkey.
¹⁸ The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel; The Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.
¹⁹ The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.
²⁰ Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana.
²¹ UMR CNRS 6553 Ecobio, Université de Rennes, 263 Avenue du Gal Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
²² Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa.
²³ Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
²⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
²⁵ Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Rangsit, Pathum Thani, 12121, Thailand.
²⁶ Department of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13 - 10123 Torino, Italy.
²⁷ PG and Research Department of Zoology, Sri Vijay Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science, Nallampalli, Dharmapuri-636807, Tamilnadu, India.
²⁸ National Museum of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.
²⁹ 5A Sagar Sangeet, SBS Marg, Mumbai 400005, India.
³⁰ Department of Biological Sciences, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea.
³¹ Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
³² University of Greifswald, Zoological Institute and Museum, General and Systematic Zoology, Loitzerstrasse 26, 17489 Greifswald, Germany.
³³ Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21 111 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, H9X 3V9, Canada.
³⁴ Department of Biological Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2122, Australia.
³⁵ Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel; Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, University in Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
³⁶ Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; BioSense Institute - Research Institute for Information Technologies in Biosystems, University of Novi Sad, Dr Zorana Ðind-ića 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.
³⁷ National Museums of Kenya, Museum Hill, P.O. BOX 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
³⁸ Department of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13 - 10123 Torino, Italy; School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Science, Technology and Society Department, 25100 Pavia, Italy.
³⁹ Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴⁰ Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
⁴¹ Te Aka Ma(-)tuatua School of Science, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
⁴² Independent researcher, Toronto, Canada.
⁴³ Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali "E. Caffi", Piazza Cittadella, 10, I-24129 Bergamo, Italy.
⁴⁴ Croatian Biospeleological Society, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb, Croatia; Rud(-)er Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
⁴⁵ Biodiversity Research Laboratory, Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire College University Centre, Warwickshire, UK.
⁴⁶ UMR CNRS 6553 Ecobio, Université de Rennes, 263 Avenue du Gal Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France; Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
⁴⁷ Department of Entomology, University of Antananrivo, Madagascar.
⁴⁸ Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.
⁴⁹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
⁵⁰ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON M1C 1A4, Canada.
⁵¹ School of Science, Auckland University of Technology, 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland 1010, New Zealand; Te Pu-naha Matatini, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
⁵² Murang'a University of Technology, Department of Physical & Biological Sciences, P.O. Box 75-10200, Murang'a, Kenya.
⁵³ Institute of Biology and Earth Sciences, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Arciszewskiego 22a, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland.
⁵⁴ Zoological Museum, Biodiversity Unit, FI-20014, University of Turku, Finland.
⁵⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Department of Entomology and Nematology, Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, Florida, USA.

PMID: 35998593
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.026

Free article

The global spread of misinformation on spiders

Stefano Mammola et al. Curr Biol. 2022.

Free article

. 2022 Aug 22;32(16):R871-R873.

doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.026.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Molecular Ecology Group (MEG), Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy (CNR-IRSA), Largo Tonolli 50, 28922 Verbania Pallanza, Italy. Electronic address: stefano.mammola@helsinki.fi.
² Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; CE3C - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes / Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores, Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, Portugal.
³ Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel; Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel.
⁴ Colección Nacional de Arácnidos, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico.
⁵ Environmental Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences and Museum of Natural History, University of the Philippines Los Banos, 4031, Philippines.
⁶ Centro Universitario de Rivera, Universidad de la República, Uruguay; Lab. Ecotoxicología de Artrópodos Terrestres, Centro Univeritario de Rivera, Universidad de la República, Uruguay; Laboratorio Ecología del Comportamiento, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas clemente Estable (IIBCE), Uruguay.
⁷ Ditsong National Museum of Natural History, PO Box 4197, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa; Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa.
⁸ Freelance translator, Verbania Pallanza, Italy.
⁹ Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
¹⁰ Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.
¹¹ Department of Life sciences, National Chung Hsing University, No.145 Xingda Rd., South Dist., Taichung City 402204, Taiwan.
¹² Department of Biology, Macelwane Hall, 3507 Laclede Avenue, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA.
¹³ Croatian Biospeleological Society, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb, Croatia.
¹⁴ Program Sarjana, Fakultas Biologi, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
¹⁵ Insectarium de Montréal, Espace pour la vie, 4101, rue Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, Québec, H1X 2B2, Canada.
¹⁶ Serket, Arachnid Collection of Egypt (ACE), Egypt.
¹⁷ Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University, Faculty of Science and Arts, Biology Department, 24002, Erzincan, Turkey.
¹⁸ The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel; The Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.
¹⁹ The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 9190401, Israel.
²⁰ Botswana International University of Science and Technology, Palapye, Botswana.
²¹ UMR CNRS 6553 Ecobio, Université de Rennes, 263 Avenue du Gal Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
²² Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of the Free State, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa.
²³ Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
²⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
²⁵ Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Rangsit, Pathum Thani, 12121, Thailand.
²⁶ Department of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13 - 10123 Torino, Italy.
²⁷ PG and Research Department of Zoology, Sri Vijay Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science, Nallampalli, Dharmapuri-636807, Tamilnadu, India.
²⁸ National Museum of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia.
²⁹ 5A Sagar Sangeet, SBS Marg, Mumbai 400005, India.
³⁰ Department of Biological Sciences, Ajou University, Suwon, Republic of Korea.
³¹ Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Jovan Hadži Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
³² University of Greifswald, Zoological Institute and Museum, General and Systematic Zoology, Loitzerstrasse 26, 17489 Greifswald, Germany.
³³ Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, 21 111 Lakeshore Road, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, H9X 3V9, Canada.
³⁴ Department of Biological Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2122, Australia.
³⁵ Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus, Israel; Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, University in Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
³⁶ Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; BioSense Institute - Research Institute for Information Technologies in Biosystems, University of Novi Sad, Dr Zorana Ðind-ića 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.
³⁷ National Museums of Kenya, Museum Hill, P.O. BOX 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.
³⁸ Department of Life Science and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Via Accademia Albertina, 13 - 10123 Torino, Italy; School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Science, Technology and Society Department, 25100 Pavia, Italy.
³⁹ Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴⁰ Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
⁴¹ Te Aka Ma(-)tuatua School of Science, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
⁴² Independent researcher, Toronto, Canada.
⁴³ Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali "E. Caffi", Piazza Cittadella, 10, I-24129 Bergamo, Italy.
⁴⁴ Croatian Biospeleological Society, Rooseveltov trg 6, Zagreb, Croatia; Rud(-)er Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
⁴⁵ Biodiversity Research Laboratory, Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire College University Centre, Warwickshire, UK.
⁴⁶ UMR CNRS 6553 Ecobio, Université de Rennes, 263 Avenue du Gal Leclerc, CS 74205, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France; Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
⁴⁷ Department of Entomology, University of Antananrivo, Madagascar.
⁴⁸ Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.
⁴⁹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
⁵⁰ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough, ON M1C 1A4, Canada.
⁵¹ School of Science, Auckland University of Technology, 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland 1010, New Zealand; Te Pu-naha Matatini, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
⁵² Murang'a University of Technology, Department of Physical & Biological Sciences, P.O. Box 75-10200, Murang'a, Kenya.
⁵³ Institute of Biology and Earth Sciences, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Arciszewskiego 22a, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland.
⁵⁴ Zoological Museum, Biodiversity Unit, FI-20014, University of Turku, Finland.
⁵⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Department of Entomology and Nematology, Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, Florida, USA.

PMID: 35998593
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.026

Abstract

In the internet era, the digital architecture that keeps us connected and informed may also amplify the spread of misinformation. This problem is gaining global attention, as evidence accumulates that misinformation may interfere with democratic processes and undermine collective responses to environmental and health crises¹^,². In an increasingly polluted information ecosystem, understanding the factors underlying the generation and spread of misinformation is becoming a pressing scientific and societal challenge³. Here, we studied the global spread of (mis-)information on spiders using a high-resolution global database of online newspaper articles on spider-human interactions, covering stories of spider-human encounters and biting events published from 2010-2020⁴. We found that 47% of articles contained errors and 43% were sensationalist. Moreover, we show that the flow of spider-related news occurs within a highly interconnected global network and provide evidence that sensationalism is a key factor underlying the spread of misinformation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests.

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The global spread of misinformation on spiders

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The global spread of misinformation on spiders

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Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

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