Fake news? An April Fool? They share some of the same traits, say linguistics experts from the UK.
They came to the conclusion after analysing hundreds of spoof April 1 articles posted on hundreds of websites over 14 years.
"April Fools hoaxes are very useful because they provide us with a verifiable body of deceptive texts that give us an opportunity to find out about the linguistic techniques used when an author writes something fictitious disguised as a factual account," said lead author Edward Dearden. The researchers focused on specific features in the stories, such as the amount of detail used, vagueness, formality of writing style and complexity of language.
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