[regoldste]

Very interesting indeed. I think it raises many more questions than it answers about human behavior and the infectiousness of rumors in social media. I'd be particularly interested to see an analysis of whether sharing a false rumor has any effect on the reshare rate of a user's future posts. In other words: is a user's influence or perceived reliability (as measured by the relative rate of reshares of his/her future posts) diminished following the initial share of a false rumor? Reduced reshare rates could be a positive reflection of an increasingly skeptical and better-informed user community. Consistent reshare rates would be...a less optimistic sign.