Why Fake News Persists
Insights from Yuval Harari’s ‘Nexus’
Why does fake news continue to proliferate? Yuval Harari’s new book, Nexus, offers deep insights into this question. Harari suggests we move beyond the perspective that information is merely truth, instead viewing it as a tool that connects people and creates order. This idea is key to understanding why fake news doesn’t easily disappear.
Indeed, recent studies show that fake news spreads much faster than truth. For example, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2025 Global Risks Report identifies ‘Misinformation and Disinformation’ as one of the most significant short-term risks facing the world. This indicates that fake news is perceived not just as a distortion of information but as a core factor intensifying social instability. Furthermore, a 2025 Pew Research Center survey of adults in 35 countries found that over 80% of respondents consider ‘made-up news’ a major problem in their country. This clearly demonstrates that the fake news problem is a global concern.
Information: More About Connection and Order Than Truth
Harari explains that the core value of information lies not in its veracity, but in its power to unite people and maintain society.
In his previous work, Sapiens, he discussed the concept of “shared fictions.” This means that society functions because many people are connected by things like religion, nations, or money, even if these things aren’t necessarily facts. For instance, the concept of a nation has no physical substance, but because people believe in it and are connected by it, borders exist, and the government ruling within those borders gains power. Humanity, he argues, was able to build great civilizations thanks to its ability to believe in and connect through fictions.
Why Won’t Fake News Disappear?
Harari states that information cannot pursue absolute truth nor exclusively aim for order.
- If it only pursues ‘Truth’, it can lead to chaos.
- If it only pursues ‘Order’, falsehoods can proliferate.
Information plays its role by striking an appropriate balance between these two. For example, in the Soviet Union, Lysenkoism, which was scientifically incorrect, was adopted as state policy. Believing in a “fiction” that aligned with the prevailing ideology at the time led to the collapse of agriculture and significant harm. Similarly, completely ignoring the truth can eventually cause problems or chaos in reality. However, because fake news is more effective at uniting people around a single belief or idea than the truth, it continues to exist as a tool that connects society.
Two Roles Driving Humanity: Mythmakers and Bureaucrats
Harari introduces two key roles that have led human society: the mythmaker and the bureaucrat.
- The mythmaker captivates people’s hearts with emotional and powerful stories. Dealing with instinctive themes like religious narratives, conspiracy theories, war, or love, they easily gather people. However, the truth is highly likely to be distorted.
- Examples: The teachings of Jesus, YouTubers promoting conspiracy theories.
- The bureaucrat deals with complex and practical issues like taxes, budgets, roads, and water systems. They play a role closer to the truth, but it’s often difficult for them to gain people’s trust due to the complexity of their explanations.
- Examples: Tax agencies, health authorities, statistical offices.
Problems Arising When Mythmakers Become Stronger
Bureaucrats are complex and hard to believe, while mythmakers are easy to understand and appealing but dangerous. As distrust in bureaucrats grows, people are drawn to autocratic leaders or demagogues (mythmakers) who deliver simple, powerful messages. This can lead to populism, the concentration of power, and the weakening of democracy. For example, during the “Walk to Canossa” incident in medieval Europe, the Pope excommunicated the Emperor, who eventually had to kneel. This event created an atmosphere of absolute papal authority, which later led to abuses of power and chaos.
Biological Dramas vs. Non-Biological Dramas
Harari explains all these conflicts as follows:
- Biological dramas: Instinctive and emotional stories like love, war, and betrayal. These are easily relatable and good for attracting public attention.
- Non-biological dramas: Complex and less emotional stories like taxes, infrastructure, and budgets. These are closer to the truth but lack a narrative, making it difficult to capture public interest.
Ultimately, people are instinctively more drawn to biological dramas, and therefore more easily influenced by stories that stimulate emotions—that is, fake news—rather than the truth.
Conclusion: Truth vs. Order, A Balance is Needed
Fake news persists because information doesn’t solely pursue truth; it also plays a role in creating social connection and order. Humanity has always grappled with the balance between truth and order, shaping history through the two axes of mythmakers and bureaucrats. To make our information society healthier, it is crucial to understand the balance of these two roles and, especially, to cultivate the ability to think critically by understanding the world of bureaucrats—what Yuval Harari calls non-biological dramas—even if it’s difficult to accept.
Recent research, specifically a survey published by Ipsos UK in March 2025, found that half of young people aged 16-34 trust news from online influencers. Of these, 77% are aware that ‘fake news’ is rampant in influencer content, yet they still consume influencer news daily. This suggests that even when the public recognizes the dangers of fake news, the tendency to seek ‘connection’ and ‘interest’ over ‘truth’ remains strong. This indicates that the fundamental problem of fake news is deeply rooted in humanity’s information acquisition methods and social relationship formation mechanisms.
Finally, like the line from the movie *A Few Good Men*,
You can’t handle the truth!
— perhaps this perfectly illustrates that we are beings more easily swayed by stories we want to believe than by the truth itself.
