Based on prior research about the linguistic characteristics commonly found in misinformation, Zhou et. al conducted the following hypothesis regarding linguistic qualities, misinformation spread, and the moderating factor of media richness.

• Compared to true information, misinformation containing more uncertainty, emotion, persuasive, or comparative words will be more widely disseminated (have more shares).
• The difference in dissemination will be even larger when the information richness is higher (more shares for fake posts when they contain photos or videos).