EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Understanding the dynamics emerging from infodemics: a call to action for interdisciplinary research

Stephan Leitner, Bartosz Gula (bartosz.gula@aau.at), Dietmar Jannach (dietmar.jannach@aau.at), Ulrike Krieg-Holz (ulrike.krieg-holz@aau.at) and Friederike Wall (friederike.wall@aau.at)
Additional contact information
Bartosz Gula: University of Klagenfurt
Dietmar Jannach: University of Klagenfurt
Ulrike Krieg-Holz: University of Klagenfurt
Friederike Wall: University of Klagenfurt

SN Business & Economics, 2021, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: Abstract Research on infodemics, i.e., the rapid spread of (mis)information related to a hazardous event, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, requires integrating a multiplicity of scientific disciplines. The dynamics emerging from infodemics have the potential to generate complex behavioral patterns. To react appropriately, it is of ultimate importance for the fields of Business and Economics to understand these dynamics. In the short run, they might lead to an adaptation in household spending or to a shift in buying behavior towards online providers. In the long run, changes in investments, consumer behavior, and markets are to be expected. We argue that the dynamics emerge from complex interactions among multiple factors, such as information and misinformation accessible to individuals and the formation and revision of beliefs. (Mis)information accessible to individuals is, amongst others, affected by algorithms specifically designed to provide personalized information, while automated fact-checking algorithms can help reduce the amount of circulating misinformation. The formation and revision of individual (and probably false) beliefs and individual fact-checking and interpretation of information are heavily affected by linguistic patterns inherent to information during pandemics and infodemics and further factors, such as affect, intuition, and motives. We argue that, to get a deep(er) understanding of the dynamics emerging from infodemics, the fields of Business and Economics should integrate the perspectives of Computer Science and Information Systems, (Computational) Linguistics, and Cognitive Science into the wider context of economic systems (e.g., organizations, markets or industries) and propose a way to do so. As research on infodemics is a strongly interdisciplinary field and the integration of the above-mentioned disciplines is a first step towards a holistic approach, we conclude with a call to action which should encourage researchers to collaborate across scientific disciplines and unfold collective creativity, which will substantially advance research on infodemics.

Keywords: Infodemics; Complex systems; Computer science and information systems; Linguistics and computational linguistics; Cognitive psychology and cognitive science; Recommender systems; Language signals; False beliefs; Guided self-organization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-020-00027-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Working Paper: Understanding the dynamics emerging from infodemics: A call to action for interdisciplinary research (2020) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:1:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s43546-020-00027-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43546

DOI: 10.1007/s43546-020-00027-4

Access Statistics for this article

SN Business & Economics is currently edited by Gino D'Oca

More articles in SN Business & Economics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla (sonal.shukla@springer.com) and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (indexing@springernature.com).

 
Page updated 2024-12-29
Handle: RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:1:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s43546-020-00027-4