Even if every person on the internet was 100% honest, the more we talk, the more likely we are to believe the wrong thing.
April 3, 2026
Original Paper
Free Information Disrupts Even Bayesian Crowds
arXiv · 2604.01838
The Takeaway
We assume misinformation is the result of bad actors or irrationality, but this model shows that unrestrained communication disrupts collective logic. Even 'perfect' thinkers can arrive at worse beliefs when they talk too much to each other.
From the abstract
A core tenet underpinning the conception of contemporary information networks, such as social media platforms, is that users should not be constrained in the amount of information they can freely and willingly exchange with one another about a given topic. By means of a computational agent-based model, we show how even in groups of truth-seeking and cooperative agents with perfect information-processing abilities, unconstrained information exchange may lead to detrimental effects on the correctn