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“It’s no surprise that interesting and unusual claims are often the most widely circulated articles on social media,” writes Assistant Professor of Government Brendan Nyhan in his latest New York Times UpShot blog.

“The problem, however, is that the spread of rumors, misinformation, and unverified claims can overwhelm any effort to set the record straight,” he says. The problem with rumors is that “they’re often much more interesting than the truth. The challenge for fact-checkers, it seems, is to make the facts as fun to share as the myths they seek to replace.”

Read the full opinion piece, published 9/29/14 by The New York Times.