For weeks, Pakistan found itself in a peculiar position, desperately wanting to play the role of a noble peacemaker between the US and Iran. It was almost as if they were performing on a grand stage, orchestrating a diplomatic ballet, all while subtly taking cues from Washington. The Iranian delegates, however, weren’t exactly enthusiastic about dancing with their American counterparts. Despite this, Pakistan’s unique civilian-military hybrid regime, with its powerful media and PR arm, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), began spinning tales and drumming up excitement with a flurry of fake alerts and updates. This theatrical performance was so convincing…

In our increasingly digital world, where information zips around the globe in milliseconds, a recent study has pulled back the curtain on a surprisingly powerful emotion driving the spread of online falsehoods: moral anger. Published in the respected journal Cognition and Emotion, this research doesn’t just say anger makes us impulsive; it shows that when we’re morally angry, we’re far more likely to hit that share button on misinformation, often ignoring whether the source is trustworthy. It’s a key insight into how our gut reactions on social media can inadvertently become super-spreaders of untruths. For a long time, we’ve known…