A Perfect Storm

In an age where news information is created by millions and consumed by billions over social media (SM) every day, issues of information biases, fake news, and echo-chambers have dominated the corridors of technology firms, news corporations, policy makers, and society. While multiple disciplines have tried to tackle the issue using their disciplinary lenses, there has, hitherto, been no integrative model that surface the intricate, albeit “dark” explainable AI confluence of both technology and psychology. Investigating information bias anchoring as the overarching phenomenon, this research proposes a theoretical framework that brings together traditionally fragmented domains of AI technology, and human psychology. The proposed Information Bias Anchoring Model reveals how SM news information creates an information deluge leading to uncertainty, and how technological rationality and individual biases intersect to mitigate the uncertainty, often leading to news information biases. The research ends with a discussion of contributions and offering to reduce information bias anchoring.