Fake news is a popular topic these days. Facebook is blamed for spreading it. Countries are weighing how to combat it. And politicians accuse others of creating it. But last week, several Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers released a study that led to one ironclad conclusion: Fake news exists because people on social media love it.

The fact is, governments and tech companies have actually done a fair bit to help credible sources. Yet “Twitter users seem almost to prefer sharing falsehoods,” notes one analysis of the study. This has nothing to do with foreign meddling or robotic algorithms. The research found that Twitter’s bots promoted true stories as much as they promoted false ones. But the false ones were wildly more successful.

Why? First, fake news can be much more clickable because it is, well, fake. But it also manipulates us, evoking surprise and disgust. 

What emotions does real news evoke? Sadness and trust, the study found. Trust is something we all can value more. We can start by not expecting news to conform to our worldviews. And, perhaps, sadness doesn’t need to be the first emotion we associate with real news. Maybe we can expect news to inspire and uplift, too. 

Now, here are our five stories for today, looking at an election centered on character, a country searching for its voice, and a criminal justice program built on a different perspective.