Fake news that manipulates political elections, strikes financial systems and even incites riots , is more viral than real news online, resulting  unstable societies and buffeted democracy. It is found that the easier contagion of fake news online can be causally explained by more anger it carries. Offline questionnaires further reveal that anger leads to more incentivized audiences on anxiety management and information sharing and accordingly makes fake news more contagious than real news online. Our results suggest that the digital contagion of emotions, in particular the anger, should be comprehensively considered in profiling the online information spread. Cures like tagging anger in social media could be inspired to slowdown or prevent the contagion of fake news at the very beginning .
Fake news that manipulates political elections, strikes financial systems and even incites riots is more viral than real news online, resulting in unstable societies and buffeted democracy. The easier contagion of fake news online can be causally explained by the greater anger it carries. Offline questionnaires reveal that anger leads to more incentivized audiences in terms of anxiety management and information sharing and accordingly makes fake news more contagious than real news online. Our results suggest that the digital contagion of emotions, in particular anger, should be comprehensively considered in profiling the spread of online information. Cures such as tagging anger in social media could be implemented to slow or prevent the contagion of fake news at the source .
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