Cass R Sunstein 
On Rumours [EPUB ebook] 
How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done

Sunstein explores the human propensity for gossip and storytelling, and discusses how our fears and hopes can work against common sense. He also investigates the way that the internet can entrench our false beliefs even deeper, and how the wish to conform, our natural biases and even our basic emotions can cause us to fall for untrue accounts.